Non-BMW Stuff on a BMW Forum
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The car has been running great for the most part. One nagging thing has been about once every other week I’d get home with an empty PS reservoir. I always thought maybe there’s a large bubble in the system since I completely drained it.
Confirmed today that’s not the case.
Pried one of the boots away from the steering rack and it was so full of fluid that it squirted out. It was under pressure.
Both seals are clearly blown out. Really disappointed with Rack Doctor. Will give them a call tomorrow but I can’t put on of their racks back in my car. I don’t trust them anymore. Will go with OE rebuilt unit from FCP.
Major bummer... I've always heard really good things about them, hopefully they remedy the situation!
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They're sending me out a new rack tomorrow. The guy there highly recommended against using synthetic dexIII ATF and suspects that was the issue. I just was used what the internets said to use.
Anyways, on a more positive note. My wife ditched the XC90 for a 2021 VW Atlas with the second row captain seats. They are a game changer for hauling three kids.
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Interesting. I siphoned and refilled my reservoir over the weekend and it doesn't feel quite right. Could just be a tiny bit of air that needs to work itself out, but I am using Maxlife ATF. I like the Maxlife because the seal conditioners really seem to help reduce leaks in past experiences but if the “air”/lack of smoothness doesnt resolve itself I may try non-synthetic ATF
Atlas seems cool
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They're sending me out a new rack tomorrow. The guy there highly recommended against using synthetic dexIII ATF and suspects that was the issue. I just was used what the internets said to use.
Anyways, on a more positive note. My wife ditched the XC90 for a 2021 VW Atlas with the second row captain seats. They are a game changer for hauling three kids.
What did he suggest to use for fluid
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What did he suggest to use for fluid
To still use dex3 atf - but not synthetic.
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To still use dex3 atf - but not synthetic.
Interesting... I put synthetic in my car and my rack with allegedly 60k miles started leaking within a year.
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To still use dex3 atf - but not synthetic.
Me going downstairs after reading this to check what I bought from oriellys
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Interesting... I put synthetic in my car and my rack with allegedly 60k miles started leaking within a year.
He said the synthetic fluids usually have an stop-leak additive to it. And he said this is fine in transmissions because most of the seals are either sandwiched between aluminum plates or have a metal component to the seal. So as they swell, they get to a point where they can't swell anymore and they stay there. In the steering rack, the seals don't have that, so they swell and continue to swell until they blow out. And he said once one side blows out, the fluid will travel through the gear to the other side and ultimately you get leaks at both ends. He said this is an ongoing issue and have been getting a lot of racks back that they suspect is because of this.
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New rack is in and I don’t have any power steering.
I used a Dex/Merc fluid instead of a DexVI because I read people used that with good results. Even if the fluid was subpar, I can’t imagine I would have zero PS.
Maybe the pump is dead. It ran on several occasions dry because I didn’t know it was empty. I also noticed when I started the car in the air to bleed the PS system, the pump didn’t wine at all. Usually it has a few wines as you go lock to lock and get the system filled up.
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I think everyone is overthinking the fluid type. I've used Redline power steering fluid for a long time in many BMWs and other cars with no issues. It is a high end synthetic, but is also labeled only for power steering so maybe different additives?
The pump won't last long without fluid, they are a rotary vane pump. I would recommend finding a ZF pump and rebuilding it before you install it. I've done one and it isn't hard, then you won't have to deal with more leaks later.
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I think everyone is overthinking the fluid type. I've used Redline power steering fluid for a long time in many BMWs and other cars with no issues. It is a high end synthetic, but is also labeled only for power steering so maybe different additives?
The pump won't last long without fluid, they are a rotary vane pump. I would recommend finding a ZF pump and rebuilding it before you install it. I've done one and it isn't hard, then you won't have to deal with more leaks later.
I'm sure I'm very well overthinking it. Redline PS fluid was another I saw other people using. I replaced the Vickers setup with a ZF pump when I first go the car, so I will look for a replacement ZF pump and rebuild kit.
Oddly enough last night as I was about to pull the car in the garage for the night the PS started working again, decided to take it for another test drive just to see, and I made it half a block before it stopped working again. Since the steering rack is so mechanical in nature, I'm pretty confident the pump is dead.
After driving around my wife's 2021 Atlas for a while and not having driven the BMW, I forget how noisy and old sounding the cars are. haha
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The new pump seems to have fixed it. Will confirm after a test drive.
In other news, we started a pretty significant home renovation project this week. Going from a small 2 bed / 1.5 bath home to a 4 bed / 2.5 bath home. We bought the house knowing if we were to stay here we’d have to add on at some point. After buying some land from our neighbor to give us about 1/3 acre and being three blocks from downtown Cedarburg, we knew this is were we wanted to stay. So, here we go. Digging for the new basement started today.
Although bedrooms and bathrooms for all five of us (eventually six of us) is fantastic, my favorite perk is that the garage becomes my workshop. I’m already in the process of cleaning it up to make it my own space.
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Leave it as is for lake front property
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Leave it as is for lake front property
Yeah. Apparently the water table is pretty high here.
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I’ve been driving it to work for the past couple weeks and the power steering seems to be fine. I bought one of those home alignment kits with the plates and tape measures and got pretty close to a good alignment. Needs some real minor adjustment. But all in all, it’s been very enjoyable!
The night mode on the new iPhone seems to work pretty okay. Have some condensation in one of the headlights, so I’ll have to pull that out and reseal it. Save that for this winter or something.
We also have some basement walls at our house!
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Some new wheels and tires for the wagon. I was getting that feeling of wanting another car and knew I had to do something to the wagon to keep it feeling different. I’ve owned it 1.5 years which is a pretty significant milestone for me.
Our basement foundation was back filled this week and they started framing today. And I’ve been driving the e30 to work quite a bit. The solid steering linkage definitely transmits extra vibrations into the steering wheel when I’m on the highway.
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Did the Overcrest Rally with @The Full Banana over the weekend. Tom did most of the driving since I was technically the passenger and we were supposed to be in his 240. But we both had a blast and the e30 exceeded my expectations and was able to keep up with the 911s in the group we drove with most of the time. Got a lot of compliments on how quick we were on the roads.
After about 400ish miles that made up the rally, the car came home with a significant number of rock chips, a season’s worth of tire removed, and very tired suspension. But it was all totally worth it.
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