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'96 Taurus GL | Power Steering Fluid Loss

36K views 3 replies 1 participant last post by  96TaurusGL 
#1 ·
Greetings all,

My name is Chris and I am posting here on behalf of a friend of mine who recently inherited a 1996 Taurus GL... which, to be perfectly honest, was not well cared for in its previous life. The car is in rough shape, but it does run.

He is experiencing a pretty substantial power steering leak and I thought I would ask if there are any common areas I should look at first before I crawl underneath it and try to see what is going on.

This is one of those cars that appears to only be held together by the collective dirt that was never washed away in its previous years. Any car that is neglected will suffer ills. But any direction you all could point me to with regard to where might be a good place to look for a steering fluid leak would be great. I've never owned a Ford so I'm not at all familiar with the 3.0L in the car.

Thanks in advance.
 
#2 ·
The most common issue I've seen for a power steering mess is someone over filling the fluid reservoir. It will leak out the small vent hole on the cap when this happens. The next most common issue is the high pressure hose which will be a prepared hose with fittings. Sometimes you can just tighten up the fittings on either end and it will stop.
He's losing a large amount of fluid and it seems to only happen when the vehicle is running and the system is under pressure. I'm wondering if the reservoir has a crack in it or if, as you suggested, there may be a failure point in the high pressure hose. The pump itself is making a lot of noise regardless of fluid level, so I'm concerned that it may have been run too much with a low fluid level that it is about to give out.
 
#3 ·
I need to get under the Taurus and get a good look. Problem is coordinating schedules to be able to take a better peek at the car. I'm assuming whatever it is won't be hard to spot considering the very large volume of fluid that is leaking.

I'm more concerned about the pump at this point since it's making some ripe noises. Don't want that to seize up and throw the belt!
 
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