I have a 95 and have had it for about 4 years and have never had a power steering problem, and flushed it about a year and a half ago. By the way I am a mechanic for goodyear and replace power stering racks regularly. But I have never heard of or ever seen a rack go out on both sides at the same time.
Here is the breakdown. yesterday at my house i pulled the trasmission out to do my clutch finished it and test drove it, and everything was fine. today I came to work and parked it outside for about 3 hours and decided to throw a new set of tires on it. so I pulled it in, lifted it, and left it for about 30 minutes. When i came back to work on it i noticed fluid leaking from the power steering rack on the left side out of the inner tie-rod boot so i pulled back the boot and it poured out. so I am standing there wondering what could have happened to it. and it started leaking from the other side, I started the car and it gushed out and emptied the resvoir in about 15 seconds. anybody ever heard of this what could go bad inside of the rack to cause this. i pulled the return line to the resvoir and it is moving fluid back in to the resvoir at a normal pace. does anyone know what the hell could have happened. thanks.

 

It is probably nothing that you did. These seals go out all the time and when they do, it can be whenever. I personally worked on a 2000 Maxima GXE at my dealership, inspected it over, and did two flushes on the vehicle and an oil change. The customer drove to Firestone 1 day later for a free tire rotation, and when they inspected the vehicle, found the Rack leaking on the Passenger side. I know for sure that when I looked the vehicle over when I had it, the rack was not leaking because I always check for that. Just a fluke probably.....

 

Our racks are not 'great' by any means .... but Kevlo911 did a write up when he did his .... shouldn't be hard to find. They can go whenever .... the metal shavings tear up the seals and it's done for.

 

the only thing that bother's me is that it was immediate both seals at the same time and it pured out in a matter of seconds as if no seals existed. i just stared at it dumb-founded. another thing i noticed over the weekend is it is extremely hard to steer even when your moving over 30 miles an hour. By the way i removed the belt. what can happen inside the rack that can cause pressure to not exit the rack through the return out of the rack. anybody? Thanks guys.

 

It could be leaking from the hose as well .... either the pressure line, or return line. Once a seal starts to go, you give it pressure (just by starting the car) and it'll blow out. It is odd that both sides did it at the same time. Not the first time it's happened (perhaps to you, yes and for that I am sorry). If the pinion gear shreaded inside the rack, that will throw metal all over in there and will be mixed in with the fluid. Over enough time / pressure, those metal chuncks will tear right through a seal.

 

My only guess is that having it on the lift put the suspension in full droop- which it's rarely in- or that while you were pulling out CV shafts to get the tranny, you ran the rack past full lock on one side of the other and FUBARd a seal...

that caused the 'spontaneous' hemorrhage..

As for the horrible steering, ALL Nissan power steering systems are a royal PITA to turn when the belt isn't moving. The fun part is on most Nissans, the power steering and water pump are on the same belt-- so if you have to pull that belt on most of 'em, you're in for a tow.

But yes, steering with fluid in the rack and without the pump running is a beyotch. only way to get lighter steering on it is to remove all the pressure lines going to the rack and blowing all the fluid out of the rack. not something you want to do to just get it home..

 

lucky for me in 95 they switched the water pump to the timing chain. on my 92 se the rack went out in it and I no choice but to do it or not drive it. luckily at that time I also had a 92 se i was parting out so i ripped the rack out of that. and aligned it at work and it didn't cost anything. But I did check out yesterday on alldata what controlls pressure in the power steering system, and I found out that inside the pump there is a pressure control valve. and if that happened to have gotten stuck and the pressure was too high when i pulled my car in it could have been filling the inner tie-rod boots on the way into the shop then i lifted, left alone and by the time I came back it was leaking out of the boots. I am sure there was no fluid left in the rack. BUt yesterday I filled it with fluid to see if it would hold under no pressure after i filled it I turnes the wheels lock to lock with the car on the rack. then i drove it home and parked in the garage over night, when i moved it this morning there was nothing on the ground. So today if i get some time here at work i am going to pull the pump and remove the pressure valve and check it out. This is the only logical thing I can think of that could have possibly wasted both seals at the same time. Thanks guys for scratching heads with me, i will keep updating this thread when i find something.