1999 Volvo S70 Power Steering Hose Leaking (Repair to line without messing with rack) Topic is solved

volvooh · Post by **volvooh** » 19 Sep 2018, 05:51

Good Morning All-

I've had a power steering fluid leak over the past several weeks and assumed it was the rack. A peak under the car revealed the leak is actually coming from the flex pipe section of the hose. The hard line is still in tact.

I followed it to the top of the rack and honestly, I don't want to disturb it on that end since its not leaking and I feel like if I do, I'll create more problems that I solve. I've heard these rack suffer from galvanic rust, not to mention the rack side fitting is in an awkward position.

Has anyone had experience splicing the hardline with either a generic one with a flex line, or even just splicing a hard line with a loop bent in to allow for flex? The car only gets driven about 5K a year at that, so the wear and tear will be minimal.

The car- 1999 S70 145,000 mi

Post by **abscate** » 19 Sep 2018, 07:04

I recall you are pretty handy so Ill offer this route..

Typical power steering pump relief valves pop at 1500psi, and an SAE 45 flare fitting has a working pressure of something like twice that (from a recent project)

I think you could make up a flare - pipe -flare pretty cheap that would save you from messing with the rack fittings.

If there is room, you could roll a helix into it for strain and vibration relief - obviously right hand helix in the Northern Hemisphere

volvooh · Post by **volvooh** » 19 Sep 2018, 09:48

Thanks, Abscate.

I see in addition to my power steering leak I appeared to have posted in the wrong forum! I see I posted in the 2001+ crowd.

I got that idea recently when my clutch hose running between my MC and SC blew out through the flex (Not a Volvo, a Saab). I was a little concerned about finding a reliable replacement due to the Mfg discontinuing production and messing with the slave connection (again in a very awkward location). I was looking at splicing in a section of hard line with a couple loops built in to absorb the flex.

I ended up finding an original saab part and replaced it, but considering the miles driven yearly I'm thinking the wear and tear to be minimal. Honestly, I drove around a bastardized set-up in a land cruiser for 5 years the previous owner had rigged a P/S cooler by cutting the line, and connecting the cooler with what looked like either heater or fuel hose, then securing the whole thing with screw clamps. It wasn't a perfect set-up as a couple of -10 F days I blew the connection on start up and had to re-fill and re- bleed the system. My solution...I added an additional screw clamp on the second blow-out. Lasted till I sold it. Who knows now!

volvooh · Post by **volvooh** » 15 Oct 2018, 06:42

I just wanted to follow-up on this. I was successful in replacing the leaking flex pipe with a 3/8" hard line. Using a normal pipe cutter and a rented flange and bending tool from at autozone, and lots of elbow grease, I got it done. For anyone attempting this fix, be advised the hard P/S line is a hair bigger that 3/8, so it does require some grinding and sanding of the existing hard line in order to slide the nut on the line and back far enough to allow for the flange tool. I added an extra couple of bends to give it some flex.

The car is only driven about 5000 mi per year, so I am comfortable with this repair...if this was a true daily driver do 20,000 mi, I'd probably opt to do the flex line.

Post by **abscate** » 05 Dec 2020, 15:01

And will move this to the P80 Forum in 5,4,3,2,1....