Just a notice. I recently had my steering rack replaced due to leakage. This seemed very unusual for a vehicle with slightly less than 15,000 miles on it. I first noticed noise at around 7000 miles. The reservoir was low. Took it to the dealer - loose clamp. Fixed? unfortunately not. At 12,000 miles the power steering fluid was low again. Back to the dealer. No fluid on the ground in either case, so what gave? Well, upon looking at the vehicle with the technician at the dealer, we located where the fluid was going. The left steering boot felt like a wet sponge. It was fixed yesterday (the part took three weeks to arrive) and all seems well. But my point is the technician said that there have been other A4s in with dry ps reservoirs, so if this means you check the steering boots just above the front wheels. It could be a TSB or recall in the making.<p>98 2.8QM<p>

I had the same problem with only 500 miles on my car. In my case, all the fluid sat on the top side of the fairing underneath the engine and I guess would drain when I was out driving. It kept my driveway nice and clean, just made the leak a little harder to notice.<p>-Micah<br>'97 1.8TQM

Same thing happened to me at 15k. As I was leaving my home, I noticed a whining noise coming from the front end, particularly when I turned the wheel. I went straight to the dealer (VW/Audi, Charlotte,NC) and they corrected the problem that day. Fortunately, they had the parts available. I noticed when I got home that there was a puddle of power steering fluid on the floor of my garage. Does anybody know what causes this?

Seem like Audi can't design / procure a good power steering rack, this happened by the thousands to the 84 to 91 Audi 5000 / 100.

Interesting! Thanks for reporting this. I lost my hydraulic fluid over the summer but the dealer couldn't find any leak. Later I found a single drop of clear oil on the garage floor. But I do often notice a burning oil smell after parking the car, as if it might be dripping onto the exhaust!. Is this possible? ('96 2.812v QA)