My 04 Maxima is leaking power steering fluid like crazy. To the point where i'm having to pour a bottle of fluid before driving it like everyday. I'm not mechanic by any means and i'm sure that this question has come across this forum a thousand times but i need advice. Is it cheaper to try and fix it myself or is going to a place like meineke/midas/pepboys to get it fixed reasonable?

If anyone has an visuals for tightening the power steering main hose i would be very grateful!

 

If your like me, and you need to get to work and not **** around trying to diy a fix like this then id say take it to a trusted local mechanic and let him deal with it. But if it is just a worn out hose, then i think thats definatley DIY depending on where it is located (not familiar with your generation)

Take it to a local mechanic and find out where its leaking and how much it costs. The mechanic that I use to take on big fixes that I dont have time for, does diagnostic troubleshooting for free. Call around and see if anyone will hook it up. Hope my advice helped

 

It's a tough call hahahaa! They usually will tell you this- hey if you never done any work on cars before, don't touch it! On other hand how can you learn without actually doing it? Go figure! I'd say this: if you are a med school student wearing thick glasses and spoiled by rich parents, stay away from this car and find some other fun things to do. If you are just like most of us here, a regular folk who does not mind getting there, spending hours fixing stuff, go for it! Just find source of leak first and don't just tighten any clamps, if the hose is leaking at the clamp, normally you need to replace that hose, because all hoses age and leak sooner or later. CHEERS!

 

take a light to the left (passenger) side of the engine bay.


Look at the hose connected to the bottom of the reservoir. Normally the clamp is worn at the neck, close to the reservoir. If its that hose, then a simple fix. Youtube is a great friend.... and that's if that hose is soaked in fluid.....gl

 

I had a similar problem, kept using this stuff Bar's Powersteering until I am pretty sure the whole thing was replaced with it. Eventually I had up enough money to get the rack-n-pinion replaced along with both halfshafts. The rack-n-pinion was about $200 from Autozone. Was not going to buy the one from Nissan. They wanted almost $1200 for the part. The total cost was about 850 for labor and both halfshafts and fluid. So overall $1100 for all parts, labor, and fluid.