We've had some freezing mornings these past few days, and my power steering started groaning loudly. Removing the cap from the power steering resevoir revealed almost no fluid.<p>I see no leaks anywhere. I never checked the fluid. The car has 13,000 miles / 1 year on it. Regular service interval at 7500 miles revealed nothing. Anyone else experience this?<p>Thanks ahead :)<br>Amro 2.8 qMS Wetted

I had a leak at about 11,000 miles. Mine never got to the point of groaning or otherwise not working right because I always keep an eye on these fluid levels. I discovered evidence of a leak when changing oil. PS fluid was leaking onto the under-engine shield near the front-right corner. According to the dealer, it was a loose hose clamp. (It hasn't been long enough to verify the problem is gone for sure, plus I haven't re-checked the shield).<p>A couple of other people have reported leaks in the steering rack. The steering boots apparently start filling with fluid, so there may not be an external leak visible for a while. You can see and inspect the steering boots, though, if you look above the front tires (through the wheel well), slightly toward the back of the tire. The A4 steering rack is a lot higher up than in most cars I have owned. My leak was nowhere near the steering rack.<p>Critical Point: Only use the proper Pentosin 11S fluid to top off the A4 PS fluid. Normal parts stores don't carry this stuff, and the wrong stuff can ruin the power steering pump. (Sources of fluid: Audi dealer, Imparts). Audi should add it for free when needed under Audi Advantage for 3 yr/36,000, though.

When it got really cold, I had the groaning you describe, and found that the fluid was low. Furthermore, when I checked it after running the car for two minutes, the fluid was foamy / full of air bubbles. Since there was no Audi dealer around where I was, I went to a VW dealer and asked for the fluid for a '98 Passat (the part number was slightly different). After topping it off (two weeks ago), I've had no problems since, nor has the fluid level gone down, nor do I have the bubbling anymore.<p>Rich D.<br>'98.0 A4 2.8QM

On the first really cold day of the year I had the same situation that you described. Drove immediately to the dealer, who looked at it and said that the hose clamps are mechanically tightened at the factory (in other words, not tightened by a human hand), and that they sometimes are undertightened. This allows steering fluid to leak out slowly, and the mechanic speculated that the cold weather may have exacerbated the leak via contraction (hoses contracted more than the clamp). <p>Hasn't leaked since.

Have a 96 2.8. Have heard power steering "groaning" also. Took to dealer who confirmed that unit was "making some noise". They ordered a new unit under warranty, said nothing about the fluid level.

I ran into this same problem as well on my 1997 2.8qm. One day I started hearing a steering pump groaning. Checked the fluid (which was checked two weeks prior) and the reservoir was quite low (liquid was actually below the dipstick - yikes!). Went straight to the dealer and they wound up fixing the following:<p>Replaced some clamps (source of leaks - tightening did not help)<br>Replaced pump under warranty. Dealer said that once the pump starts groaning, damage is already being done. I have no idea if this is true but if it is, I'm glad it was replaced under warranty instead of later on out of my own pocket.<p>It seems that this problem was very common to the early cars and as the others have said; seems to be caused by under-tightened clamps. You'd think they would have had a TSB on this by now.

I to went to the closest dealer which happened to be VW. I called the Audi dealer and he told me the fluids are the same. The Audi manual called for G002000 and the bottle I got from VW was labeled G002012. The 012 (according to the Audi dealer) indicates bottle size. What's important is the G002.<p>Thanks for all the responses. :)<br>Amro