Power Steering Fluid Leak - Serious or Not?

[my12by60]

I needed to add some power steering fluid to the system the other day. I jacked the car up today to take a look underneath. The only place that I say an PS fluid was on the driver side boot. The fluid was on the boot near the clamp at the rack end of the boot. The tie rod end of the driver side boot was dry as was the rest of the rack and the passenger side boot. I did not feel any fluid on the top of the driver side boot or see any fluid path from above. I did not see any signs of leakage on the hoses or on the underside of the reservoir. In 2015, before I bought this Q, the prior owner had work done on the PS system at her local shop as follows:

April 2015:
Parts - $375 Labor $200
Power Steering Reservoir, PS Hose (pipe to pipe), PS Hose (reservoir to pipe)

December 2015:
Parts - $495 Labor $200
Rebuilt Rack & Pinion

I read some posts here that the PS system on the Q is notorious for leaking.

Is my needing to add fluid six months after the installation of a new rack normal and not that big of a deal?

Or should I call the shop to see if they will provide some sort of warranty coverage for the job they did in December 2015?

[Q451990]

If the fluid is indeed coming from the rack, and it's under warranty - I'd see if the warranty will take care of it. Sealed is sealed.

If the warranty is for the original buyer only, I'd keep an eye on it and top it off as needed.

[my12by60]

I called the shop and they said I should run the car in so they can take a look. I will report back with findings on Thursday after they take a look.

[my12by60]

Shop says the rack is leaking on the driver's side. They will stand behind the work and replace the rack and cover the labor also. They want me to pay for an alignment ($80), which seemed fair since the original rack replacement was done for the prior owner and the shop could have told me they would only warranty the rack for the owner they did the original work for. We agreed that I would watch the fluid level until November and add as needed. If the leak persists (which we both expect it will), then I will bring the Q in for a replacement rack in December, which is the shop's slowest month. I think this is a fair plan.

[3Q Jay]

sounds like good plan. let us know. shop seems reasonable, but this points out the problem with so called 'rebuilt' parts. too often that means just slapping a new seal into a worn unit. what a surprise when the new seal can't fix it permanently.....
unfortunately not a lot of great options as our cars age. best is to have YOUR stuff rebuilt by a local tradesman. but even that is a dying art in our throw away society.

[my12by60]

The shop owner said he usually uses Cardone for rebuilt steering racks because they can get him the parts he needs quickly. But the rebuilt rack in my car was actually done by a local rebuild shop because the prior owner was able to leave the car for a few days. Shop owner said he usually has had good luck with the local rebuild outfit, but not this time.

[GoadQ45T95]

I work for a place (which I wont name) that sells A1 cardone. Its a complete crapshoot on whether your getting a good or bad out of the box part. I also sell a couple other reman companies parts and its roughly the same. If you can (probably not in this case) try to get a part re manufactured by the OEM supplier. In my experience they tend to be the best, for obvious reasons.

[3Q Jay]

I work for a place (which I wont name) that sells A1 cardone. Its a complete crapshoot on whether your getting a good or bad out of the box part. I also sell a couple other reman companies parts and its roughly the same. If you can (probably not in this case) try to get a part re manufactured by the OEM supplier. In my experience they tend to be the best, for obvious reasons.

agree agree agree

[my12by60]

The shop said the plan for my rack is to take it off the car and get to the local rebuild shop, have them work on that same rack, then re-install the rack. The hope is that the second rebuild will be extra carefully done to avoid the embarrassment of failing to properly rebuild the same rack twice.

[3Q Jay]

consider having your starter (assume it's a nissan core?) rebuilt by a AZhitman local shop while the rack is out. new drive, brushes, and solenoid at minimum. rack must be dropped to remove the starter on fgy33. then you won't have to re-align a second time either....
have you mechanic ask specifically what they replace in the rack rebuild....

[my12by60]

The starter rebuild sounds like a good idea. I did a little searching in this forum and it looks like a good rebuild is less than $100, which is a bit more than the cost of an alignment, as you note. How long have starters been lasting folks here? Since mine is 16 years old, it probably makes sense to do a preemptive rebuild even though it has not been acting up.

[3Q Jay]

at 16 yr (119k) on my fgy33 i got o-ccasional 'click' when turning to start. would always clear on second try, but figured it was about time.

[my12by60]

I have gotten the occasional click also but I thought it was the battery getting weak. But the battery has tested fairly strong with my multi-meter. So the starter rebuild is definitely something that I will get done as part of the ps rack warranty job. I connected with a good local shop that knows the Q45 starter well and they said $80 to $100 for a rebuild with one day turnaround as long as I make a drop-off appointment ahead of time.

[3Q Jay]

excellent. not telling you (your shop) what they already know, but the fgy33 version is significantly different from the g50 version in terms of parts. the brush holder and assy for example.

[my12by60]

Leaking steering rack was replaced under warranty last week. Unfortunately for me, the rack rebuild shop had a rack in stock. So the shop doing the rack replacement labor was able to have the new rack on hand. They changed the rack while I waited because they did not want to have one of their lifts tied up all day. This meant that the starter rebuild job was not going to work as I needed a day to get the OE starter over to the starter rebuild shop. I guess I could have bought another starter and had the shop replace the OE starter as a part of the rack replacement job, but you guys advised keeping the OE if possible. So I will keep my fingers crossed that the OE starter has some more years left in it.

[GoadQ45T95]

Suppose it would depend upon how "good" the rebuild is of the OEM part. Just like anything else, if they half a** it, it wont last long. I think you are doing the right thing though. The Q doesnt like aftermarket parts for the most part.