After a long day at work, I drove back to my home and pulled my 1990 V8 Quattro into the driveway. My son and I started to unload the crap that seems to pile up in the backseat of the car when he said, "dad there is smoke coming out from under the hood". Sure enough he was right and I exclaimed several choice words as I popped the hood to see whats up. Well it turns out that my hydrolic fluids were leaking all over the place and was hitting the hot exhaust pipes.

Going back to May of last year, I took my car into the shop for a simple oil change. The shop called me up several hours later with a laundry list of items that needed to be fixed. The first one was to replace the steering rack because it was beginning to leak. He hit me with the price tag for it and immediately I went into a fog unable to comprehend the rest of what he said. It cost around $1750 to do including alignment. Of course I told him no and now here we are 10 months later.

Now i went thru my invoices and noticed that about 3 years ago they replaced the hydrolic pump and a pressure hose. I really think its the rack.
I understand there is no way to patch it. You have to replace right? Can some one explain where it is leaking from on the rack and why you can not fix it? Isnt there a steering rack boot? What are my options if any. Does any one have a few extra grand I can have?

Usually the o-rings seals starts to leak. Rebuilt from Jorgen is about $250.00 or you can send in your old rack to be rebuild.

Verify that it is the rack and not one of the hose(s).

Racks are stupidly expensive. Mine is punched and I didn't win the lotto. Both boots are torn off and it was leak green gold evrywhere. Then I switched to ATF. This swells the seals and presto... no more leaks. It does mean that when I have to do the rack eventually I'll need to do the hoses and pump BUT you have to do that if any of the rack rebuilder's are going to honor their warranty anyway. One of them offers a liftime on the rack if all the other stuff gets done. I can't remember where off the top of my head.

Your call.

your car problems before you do. :)

Rack from Jorgen here in Michigan will set you back around $225-275...

If you do the job yourself then all you'll need more to buy is some Pentosin.

Can you tell where the leak is from?

Squeeze the rubber boots on the rack and see if it's full of fluid...

Steve
Michigan

Its definatley the rack & pinion. Im on my 2nd one, the leaks usually come from the drivers side at the O-ring seals, mine is starting to leak again but its really minor and im not planning on keeping the car for much longer. I'm assuming the V8 rack and pinion is the same as on the T44s?

Well I wont be doing the work myself. I can barely replace the windshield wiper blades. So it looks like I will have my overpriced mechanic shop do the labor. Does anyone know how many hours it takes to do this? They want to charge me around $1750 for the service including alignment. We won't be going to Florida for spring break now but at least the car will run a little better! How much should this cost (or better put how much am I being overcharged). What hose should I squeeze or where is it located and what am I looking for? I do have 'an old friend' who works on cars at that runned down garage down the block. He may give me a better price but I am worried about ordering the wrong rack; not knowing enough about Audi's; can't do the alignment properly; etc. But at least we can go to Dollywood for vacation!!!!