Leaking power steering cooler? Help!?
Leaking power steering cooler? Help!? So I haven't driven my baby but maybe once in the last 7 years. Imagine that, my daughter will be 6 this week...coincidence...
Anyway, I finally decided to make some time for her and take her out of storage, and I remembered an issue it was having just before I put it away.
I had noticed there was oil in the coolant when I opened the rad cap.
Panicked, I figured my newly built LS3 was damaged, or had head gasket issues etc. So I immediately dropped the oil, only to find it still looked like new, and no signs of coolant in the oil.
I tried scratching my brain to figure out what was happening, I knew it was possible for engine oil to get in the coolant, but not have coolant in the engine oil. However I also noticed the power steering fluid was low, and it looked milky on the power steering fluid dip stick.
That being said, has anyone here ever had this issue? Having the power steering cooler leak into the coolant. I haven't inspected it to see how it functions and what could go wrong to allow this to happen, but Im going to guess it is possible and am going to assume this is what is happening.
Also, the car has drag race suspension and pizza cutters on the front, so its safe to say I wont be doing and road courses and alot of cornering in its curent form, so I am definitely willing to remove it outright. Does anyone have any experince with this and what did you do to bypass it etc.
Thanks for your time, its nice to be back!
Anyway, I finally decided to make some time for her and take her out of storage, and I remembered an issue it was having just before I put it away.
I had noticed there was oil in the coolant when I opened the rad cap.
Panicked, I figured my newly built LS3 was damaged, or had head gasket issues etc. So I immediately dropped the oil, only to find it still looked like new, and no signs of coolant in the oil.
I tried scratching my brain to figure out what was happening, I knew it was possible for engine oil to get in the coolant, but not have coolant in the engine oil. However I also noticed the power steering fluid was low, and it looked milky on the power steering fluid dip stick.
That being said, has anyone here ever had this issue? Having the power steering cooler leak into the coolant. I haven't inspected it to see how it functions and what could go wrong to allow this to happen, but Im going to guess it is possible and am going to assume this is what is happening.
Also, the car has drag race suspension and pizza cutters on the front, so its safe to say I wont be doing and road courses and alot of cornering in its curent form, so I am definitely willing to remove it outright. Does anyone have any experince with this and what did you do to bypass it etc.
Thanks for your time, its nice to be back!
TECH Junkie
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 3,050
Likes: 715
From: Poplarville, MS
You can unhook the P/S lines from the cooler and just connect them together. You can also get a small trans cooler and use it in place of the stock cooler. Don’t forget to flush the cooling and P/S systems.
If it's the factory cooler, then YES. This is a very common issue. Most people remove the stock cooler, get a solid upper rad hose from autozone and a small trans cooler. When I did mine I put it just behind the air dam underneath the radiator. Actually still had a fair amount of air flow and kept the PS fluid cooler than with the stock one.
Teching In
Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 45
Likes: 0
The shear fact of removing the PS cooler and running just a hose will make the system run cooler than factory. Not a very good design from the start. If you're into autocross, get a cooler that works. For a street car, don't worry about a cooler, you'll never push it hard and long enough.
