Power Steering Hose Question. What is this?

[q2quest]

In an earlier post I described how the return hose burst on my 3.0. Below is a photo of the hose that goes from the reservoir to the PS cooler pipe.



I was curious about the two factory looking clamps and began to investigate.



I cut open the hose and removed these two metal pieces which have a much smaller diameter hole inside. They look like flow restrictors. One of them has some electrical tape rolled up and shoved inside the hole, essentially blocking all the flow. What in the world? Obviously a previous owner did this, but for what purpose? Do these metal things look familiar to anyone? Can anyone explain why someone might have done this? Perhaps this is why the steering always felt stiff?

[jacobsen]

Someone fixed the failure design stock power steering hoses at the oil cooler. They must have accidentally got some electrical tape in there, I can't imagine they did it on purpose. I did the exact same thing with larger and different hose barbs. I also sealed the threaded connections on them with red Loctite. It fixed my power steering leak in my power steering cooler for a fraction of the price of the OEM hose. Total cost was like 10 bucks or something, whatever you do, whoever else may read this some day. Do not use vacuum hose! Always use fuel hose! Vacuum hose will sweat and leak like crazy. Fuel hose will work perfectly. I used screw down hose clamps instead of the crimp Style.

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[q2quest]

After doing much reading I see now that those restrictors are stock Audi pieces. However, someone definitely rolled up a piece of electrical tape and shoved it in there. It was in there tight and was no accident. Strange, though because the factory crimp clamps were still in place and looked like they had never been tampered with.

[jacobsen]

After doing much reading I see now that those restrictors are stock Audi pieces. However, someone definitely rolled up a piece of electrical tape and shoved it in there. It was in there tight and was no accident. Strange, though because the factory crimp clamps were still in place and looked like they had never been tampered with.

Odd

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[Kevin C]

After doing much reading I see now that those restrictors are stock Audi pieces. However, someone definitely rolled up a piece of electrical tape and shoved it in there. It was in there tight and was no accident. Strange, though because the factory crimp clamps were still in place and looked like they had never been tampered with.

Is is possible that the tape is actually a chunk of the hoses inner wall that seperated off?

[q2quest]

Is is possible that the tape is actually a chunk of the hoses inner wall that seperated off?

I don't see how. It looks exactly like electrical tape carefully rolled up and shoved into the hole.

I just received my new hose and it did not come with any restrictors. Should I swap over the ones I have or run it without?