Thought I’d throw this out there…when the expert V12 Jaguar mechanic took a look at my car, he said the P/S hoses were not leaking that bad, just a minor seepage. I told him I’d like to replace them anyways since they were probably original.
He looked at me with a smirk, and said ‘i’m sure those aren’t original’.
So I guess these things need replacing every once in a while?
He admitted they are a PITA, a four hour job for him. The now-only available aftermarket hoses don’t always match up perfectly. And advised to make SURE to unbolt P/S oil cooler first before dropping steering rack.
Just catching up to this thread and I want to ask for some advice. I had a gushing PS leak that prevented driving the car. Since I wanted to install poly bushings anyway, I decided to drop the rack to see where the leak was. As I pulled the rack down, I found a hole worn through the high pressure hose about 3 inches up from the fitting. Seems it was rubbing on the exhaust manifold heat shield. I took pictures before loosening the hoses and once I got them out, I saw that they were each bent slightly at the rack end, along the 2 inch section of pipe between the flare nut and the hose crimp. I had new hoses made locally and the shop put the bend in the low pressure line but not the high pressure line. When I picked them up, I pointed this out and the tech said it looked like the line was originally straight. (he said I could bring it back or just bend it myself). So, for my S2 XJ12, should there be a bend in that high pressure pipe? Also, I suspect that, even though the hoses and rack and its bushings appear to be factory-original, the hoses may have been improperly installed at some point, so I don’t trust their clocking positions (the direction they were pointing) as I found them.
As I look at the pictures something else comes to mind: There are small angle brackets welded to the original pipes. These don’t seem to serve any purpose but I wonder if a piece is missing…maybe something that radially located or connected the pipes at the rack attachment…and was discarded in previous work?
Curious, as one of mine is leaking badly too, Greg … is it the high pressure or the low pressure (or that short piece that runs from the cooler to the reservoir)?
btw, re: steering rack bushings, been wondering why when I get Superblue ('94 4.0) up to about 50 MPH the steering wheel is shaking back and forth slightly but rapidly. Same for when I apply the brakes (as well as a slight pulsation felt in the brake pedal). At first I thought maybe the front end had gotten out of align somehow, but there’s no funky wearing of the front tires and she holds the road almost perfectly with hands off the wheel. From what you mentioned, Greg, I’m wondering if I’m dealing with bad steering rack bushings.
Was wondering about this. The factory manual seems to indicate that the “heat sleeves” should slide right off the old hoses and onto the replacement ones. Hope that’s really the case!
Interesting. Yes, I had a flat tire shortly before that (damn bolt got stuck into it ) and although I re-inflated it w. my emergency tire inflator and quickly drove it to a nearby top-of-the-line tire shop for repair they did the job for free , so possibly they didn’t even bother to recheck the balance on it before reinstalling. Thanks for the tip, Greg …
Usually when someone fixes a flat for free, they mark the tire position, remove it from the wheel, fix flat, and then remount in same position. They don’t always check on the balance machine.
Sometimes they forget, or are a tiny bit off, which will be noticeable at speeds above 50mph.
Hope this thread is still active. Aristedes, Where did you get, or what did you make the bushings you added to the rack. I am chasing the clunking noise in my front end (93 4l) and would like to add them to my rack. I have the 9107s that appear to be in good shape although I will be taking a closer look to be sure.
I got the poly bushings from SNG Barratt with the intension of removing the old ones.
But that entailed removing the rack completely and disconnecting the hoses, so since mine were still in very good shape I decided to hack the poly bushes and just added side pieces and washers.
A trick I did:
Made the bushings overall the same size, or even slightly wider than the brackets. Added the big fat washer and compressed them with wood F clamps and left them sit overnight. Then inserted the whole assembly, washer included, into the brackets.
Like this I made sure the bushes were under compression.
Mind you that the steering wheel might need adjustment as the rack might not sit at exactly the same place.
Fiddly, but can be done with the rack in place.
Sorry, I didn’t want to be “that guy”, but my day job is a computer data wrangler. Over many years, I’ve used a lot of collaborative tools, and more so now due to the pandemic. There is a wide variation in their ability to search for useful information. So, anything we can do, at the user level, to separate posts based on specific subject information will be a bonus for those in the future.
Thank you for the quick response. I will probably go with steel washers and a couple of rubber washers sandwiched between them. I also appreciate the advice on the rack. Will try to post my results once I crawl under and get it done. Dennis.
) and although I re-inflated it w. my emergency tire inflator and quickly drove it to a nearby top-of-the-line tire shop for repair they did the job for free 
, so possibly they didn’t even bother to recheck the balance on it before reinstalling. Thanks for the tip, Greg … 