04 s4 steering woes and huge shop bill

[4kqlifer]

I took my car in to have a slow coolant leak investigated that was getting worse. The night before taking it to the shop the power steering stopped working. It howls if you turn the wheel and the fluid is foamy in the reservoir. Driving it to the shop was challenging. So I told them that (a reputable German shop) and they said the rack needs replacing as well as hoses. The coolant leak is some hard to reach hose as well. They said the engine needs to be pulled to perform the work to the tune of $6200. I'm not doubting them but I'm not wanting to dump that kinda money into it especially since the chains haven't been done. So I looked online and saw that some folks replaced their faulty steering hose through the wheel well? No engine pull needed? I wrench on my own cars quite often and am thinking I need to tackle it all myself to keep the car. I do love it and don't want to sell it for nothing.

[gcoy]

That's ridiculous. Get a second opinion

[badger.]

Yea, take it to another shop. At least, ask them what job is requiring the engine pull!

"It howls if you turn the wheel and the fluid is foamy in the reservoir. "
That sounds almost like just low fluid - do you actually have a fluid leak somewhere? It should read like 1cm above "max" on the dipstick. Ether way, it hardly matters; there is nothing in the steering system that needs an engine pull to replace. It would hardly even help changing the entire rack, everything is done through the wheel wells, ask me how I know....

My guess is the coolant hose that is leaking is what is necessitating the engine pull? There is a line or two on the rear of the engine that would be a major PITA to get to without the engine out, but I think you can still get to it, just have to take a bunch of stuff off.

[tmh88]

I took my car in to have a slow coolant leak investigated that was getting worse. The night before taking it to the shop the power steering stopped working. It howls if you turn the wheel and the fluid is foamy in the reservoir......So I looked online and saw that some folks replaced their faulty steering hose through the wheel well? No engine pull needed?

I can't say much about the coolant leak, but as for replacing the power steering pump or rack, no, you do not need to pull the engine. There are probably quicker ways to do it, but I pulled my front end off (I had some other work to do too), and it made the process 100x easier. Once the front end is off all you have to do is remove the driver's side motor mount, then you have direct access to the power steering pump. From there you unbolt it in the driver's side wheel well and then slide it out through the front where the motor mount was. Sounds intimidating, but it's really not too bad, just time consuming. I haven't replaced my power steering rack, but here is a tutorial on how to do it.

[GOR720]

I had the same problem with the power steering, turns out there was a hose that had a crack and started pulling in air and letting out a tiny bit o fluid but not enough to drop to the floor, it just got the outside of the hose wet, I stopped the noise because I flushed the system and cleaned the filter that is inside the reservoir, kinda hard but not impossible, from then on I just changed the hoses, at least the ones I could reach and now its working like a charm, that was a year ago.
The coolant well the hoses have a bunch of plastic pieces, those tend to crack and leak a bit, happened to me also, open the hood and look a the passenger side behind the headlamp, there are a couple of hoses there and there is a Y plastic connector, that thing sucks as well as all the other plastic pieces, check them out

[4kqlifer]

Thanks so much for your insights guys. I'm definitely going to tackle this myself. Pulling the engine does seem extreme.

[gautam]

If air got in to your P/S system it might have affected your P/S pump. Top off your P/S fluid and see if the noise goes away and monitor how much fluid you're losing. FCP euro has a new steering rack for $700 + $200 core charge and it comes with a lifetime warranty.

[b6onboost]

I want to say my quote for a new Rack for my B6 a few years back was $1800 installed. No need to pull the motor.

PS (no pun intended)...if your Rack or line is leaking the pump is likely starved and may be shot. That's what happened to mine. I lived with a slow leak Rack leak for years and topping it off was fine, but eventually the pump died.