Went out to get in the truck this am - nearly fell on my a**. Big ole puddle of transfluid near the drivers side front tire. Thought oh crap the trans puked fluid. Nope that wasn't it - PS pump. Cap was secure on the pump - looks like it all came out through the vent hole. I lost around a qt would be my guess.

Truck braked, steered just fine last night. All I did was pull it in & shut it down.
What the heck could this be? Am I looking @ a new PS pump soon?

I did just do brakes on this truck recently but, don't think its connected to that.

DG

 

Are you sure your return line from your brake booster to you pump resevoir hasn't come loose? Can you see where the fluid is coming from??

 

Checked both lines on the pump and I couldn't find any leaks - Definately looks like it came out of the vent on the cap. (cap had fluid standing in the recesses)

I had to add about 1/2 a qt to get it back up the the full mark. Added the ATF and the pump seems ok. Whined a little until I got all of the air worked out of the system after I refilled it. Steering feels normal & brakes feel solid. The steering may be a little harder to turn but not noticably more so than usual.

I did have to drive about 1.5 miles this morning with it low on fluid to buy the ATF but, I took it as easy as I could. Unfortunately I didn't have any ATF at the house to refill it with. Won't let that happen again!

I'm stumped at this point. Everything appears to be back to normal. Guess I'll drive it for a day or so to see what happens.

DG

 

Don't know what may have caused that, unless the brake pedal was pressed hard or steering wheel turned with the engine off (pump not running), this may have forced the ATF out of the booster and into the resevoir and without the pump running, possibly overflowed, maybe???? Just guessing here..

 

When I shredded the foil and foam covering from the IC pipe, I unknowingly bumped that return line and trashed a fitting somehow. I came out to the truck the next morning and saw basically the same thing you did. $40 for a new return line and all was well.

 

Well drove the whole day - not a drop of PS fluid leaked. I did get to thinking about this a little more and my puked fluid may actually be related to the brake job.

Here's my thought - My pads (F&R) were pretty shot not gone but getting there. I retracted the caliper pistons all the way back in when I did the pads and bled the system. I'm thinking since the pump provides braking boost - more boost effort would have been required with the thinner pads. With the new pads the boost should be less. Question is does more boost require more PS fluid to reside in the master cylinder?

It was nearly 90deg yesterday and I did have some hard stops with a good load behind me. Petal doesn't go down nearly as far as before the brake job - this is as it should be.

If my theory about the boost is correct then I should have checked the PS level after finishing seating the brake pads and if I'm right it would have been too full. Hot day yesterday (90deg) + a little too full on fluid and it boiled over through the vent.

I can't seem to find anything wrong at this point. Pump isn't whining, brakes feel normal so my thought is the pump is working ok.

DG

 

Did you take off the cap to the reservoir when you did your brakes?

 

I've heard of this happening when you turn the steering wheel without the engine running.

 

Nope didn't take the cap off when I did the brakes. In fact I never even checked or touched the PS Pump at all - I kinda forgot the two were connected when I did the brakes. I just checked the master cylinder to make sure there was enough brake fluid in it before I bled the system and then topped it off when I was done.

Didn't turn the wheel without the engine running either.

That's why this has me stumped. Drove the truck all day yesterday w/o any indication of trouble. Walk out to the garage this morning and there's a puddle of PS fluid around the drivers side front wheel. I checked for leaks everytime I stopped today and nothing showed up.

The Pump seems fine at this point. I get the occasional whine when turning but, thats probably some air still trapped in the system working its way out. I had to drive it a little bit to get the ATF this morning when it was low.

DG

 

The pressure from pushing in on the calipers with the cap on the resivour could have over pressurized the system causing you to leak. I dont know enough about the system to tell you for sure but maybe???

 

theres never any pressure on the reservoir as there is a small hole in the cap which is where his fluid came out of. Hmm maybe some sort of burp or maybe shutting the truck down (stopping pump flow) but then releasing brakes after the truck was stopped and engine was stopped could have left the return line dump fluid back in and overflow?

 

I've been thinking this through since this morning - this just has me stumped. If the leak had occured right after I changed the pads I would have just attributed it to that and moved on. The weird part is I did the front pads on Saturday afternoon and the rears on Sunday morning. Then it puked fluid 3 days later Wednesday morning. One thing though - I don't actually know when the fluid puked out. It happened between when I parked it on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.

If I did build pressure in the system when I pushed the calipers back in one would think the leak would have occured at that time not 3 days later.

DG

 

How would the master cylinder contribute to overflowing to power steering setup when the two fluids dont mix? I could understand your brake fluid overflowing but wouldnt understand how the powersteering fluid would overflow with doing a brake job. Have you checked the level of the master cyclider?

 

Maybe you got air trapped somewhere that took a couple days to work back to the surface. Like Kris said maybe a hickup

 

The power steering pump pressurizes the brake booster on our trucks right?