Striker

iTrader: (1)

I need some help fellas.

I've got a 99 WS6 that just rolled over 25K miles.

I don't know if my power steering rack is slowly going or what, as the car spends most of the time parked and not driven.

Two years ago, I replaced both the coolant and power steering fluid. I went with redline fluid. I noticed some coolant at the bottom of my ac compressor. Also, the tie rod boot had some fluid around it. Definitely oily.

Opened up the power steering cap and found a orange like mixture. **I don't recall what color the red line fluid was but I believe it to be almost clear.**

Is the ps cooler gone? If so, it doesn't explain coolant leaking down around my ac compressor, does it?

demonspeed

iTrader: (7)

Never heard of this...








Look at the sticky at the top of this section. This is going to happen to everyone with a power steering cooler. You've got a couple of options which include either going with an aftermarket cooler or eliminating it altogether. I personally started with the aftermarket cooler; however, I recently removed it and am perfectly content with nothing at all -- and the cleanliness of two less hoses!

Striker

iTrader: (1)

I would prefer to keep it all original. So I'll have to buy a new gm piece.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

^ ...no...you don't. Read the thread for a very good upgrade option. I imagine you wouldn't want this thing to fail on you in a more unexpected way and/or at an inconvenient time?

With the exception of a few parts, these cars are very solid and reliable.

This is one of those parts. The OEM cooler regularly failed on people before warranties were up. GM issued bulletins about this problem but never re-engineered it. (That was before anyone cared about recalls.)

Striker

iTrader: (1)

The thing is, nothing has failed, yet. The steering works great, I just noticed some leaking at the bottom and possibly my ps coolant contaminated.

I was thinking of removing it all together and just buying a straight thru upper rad hose for cars without the heat exchanger?

LS6427

iTrader: (2)

Uh, yea, it did fail. Otherwise your coolant would not be contaminated. The factory PS fluid cooler springs a leak and both coolant mixes with PS fluid which will damage the PS pump and PS fluid mixes with the coolant....which gums it all up and reduces the cooling efficiency of the coolant over time.

If you want to keep the car original, which in the case of a Firebird really doesn't accomplish anything, buy a new pipe and put it on the shelf. But install an aftermarket cooler that actually cools the PS fluid, unlike the factory pipe cooler.

If you sell it some day you can install the factory cooler pipe.....which 99% of people don't notice anyway and have no clue what they are looking at anyway.

.

demonspeed

iTrader: (7)

ACDelco 26347X is the hose you'd want if you want to stick with GM parts.

I actually kept my PSC as it had not actually failed when I removed it. I figured that some day I might want to have a 100% stock car, so I'll just install my working one if I buy a car that theirs is failing already (and like LS6427 mentioned, if you've got the gunked up coolant/ps fluid, the PSC has failed).

Striker

iTrader: (1)

Here, I took some pictures of the situation today.

Let me know what you guys think.

https://plus.google.com/photos/111055328975617289617/albums/6031888102334369441

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

This would be an option. Have you read the thread yet? https://ls1tech.com/forums/general-m...g-success.html

This option is covered in the later part of the thread.

Your pictures don't look too bad. (You don't have the crusty alien slime on your dipstick yet.) That being said, your cooler has failed internally and is allowing fluids to mix. At this point, the question is how much faster will the internal leak open up and at what point will the pressure bleed-over be a problem.

Striker

iTrader: (1)

I did read a couple pages of the thread.

At first. I thought my rack was gone and nothing else as I noticed some leaking at the bottom of the k member.

How can you tell my fluids are mixing?

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Ahhh. I think we read in to your earlier comments that the mixture meant that it was a heterogeneous fluid floating in there. (Causing us/me to miss the question that you closed with.)

Looking at the thread again:
- I don't see any evidence in your pictures that you have P/S fluid in your coolant. When this happens, you get an ungodly slime on the dipstick and can see blobs of stuff. (Like an oil spill happened in your radiator.) That being said, its only a matter of time before you have problems, so I'd still plan to address the cooler the next time you bleed/flush the P/S system and/or coolant system.
- The coolant leak on your A/C compressor is probably the weep hole in the water pump weeping. Even though you have low miles, the water pump seals may have gotten brittle (from father time) and could be going bad.

Striker

iTrader: (1)

Thank you. Are there any other pics I can take for you guys just to clarify this isn't the issue?

I forgot the color of redline ps fluid. I would like to test this too

dailydriver

Red Line p.s. fluid is a translucent red color, a little lighter in shade than most Dex 3 mineral based ATFs.

The Valvoline Max Life Synthetic p.s. fluid is absolutely clear in color.

Striker

iTrader: (1)

I think I'll give that Valvoline synthetic a go. Probably cheaper too.