I have been trying to repair my power steering system for about 4 months now. I have seen PS fluid (i think) under the reservoir by the washer fluid reservoir,

and have lately seen white smoke coming up from under the hood directly beneath the reservoir after about 5 minutes of running, while sitting in my driveway.The smoke seems to be burning off of the y-pipe. I took it to one shop, who told me that nothing was wrong with my PS system. BS.

I know that something is wrong, b/c of a few things. First, one day I took a hard u-turn, and when I straightened out the wheel, the center of the wheel was at 10 o'clock to go straight. I looked under the car and saw at least one torn rack boot
,
and I saw the power steering fulid from under the passenger side wheel well also.Looking up from the gound, the red wire is the O2 sensor harness.

I am hoping that anyone has an idea about what could be causing this leak, or what could need to be replaced. The car has 120,000 miles and I just replaced the whole front end, and I desperately need to get this fixed so I can get an alignment and drive my car again. 4 1/2 months w/ no car=

 

so do u think that it is the PS leaking fluid or not?
if ur not sure...spend some time looking for the supposed leak u see by the reservoir. trace the leak and see where the source of the leak is then u go from there and make ur repairs.

 

trace all PS line and try to find the source of the leak, if indeed it is leaking.

Your loss of steering when you were driving, probably was due to lack of PS fluid, but since you boot is broken, might as well replace the tie rod (inner) and the boot.

 

Forgive me, I am a lady and this just might be a 'girl question'.

You said you replaced your 'whole front end'! Doesn't that include ball joints and tie rods? If so, shouldn't the boot be new? Who did the work to your front end, and how did it escape their attention that your boot was torn?

Just curious!

Also, when my power steering pump went bad, I knew it had seized because of the amount of elbow grease needed to turn my tires. (Doesn't help that the tires were 18x15.5x44 Mud Swampers!).... Maybe mark the level of power steering fluid before and after driving the car?? Could you carefully pressure wash CERTAIN parts of your engine bay to clean off all grease and dripping fluids and then follow the leak? If there is one of course, and last but not least, I'd get a second opinion!

But I am just a girl.........

 

smart girl!
Yep. Get some engine degreaser like Gunk and clean everything up. Then find where the leak is. After buying my own 96, I had to have the PS pump rebuilt because it was leaking. Wouldn't surprise me if you have the same problem.

 

Found the leak yesterday. It was coming from the non-pressure return hose from the PS pump. Much cheaper fix than the whole rack. The mechanic said that the rack was OK now, and that I shouldn't worry about replacing it until it goes bad. Just put in a new inner rack boot also, because when I (myself) did the rest of the front end, I thought the rack was bad so I was planning on having it all fixed at once.