Word of warning re power steering

Apologies if this is common knowledge but I thought I would post this, just in case I'm not the only who didn't know.



I recently had a power steering pipe split on my MG ZT cdti and lost all reasonable steering capability. Luckily it happened when I was about 2 mins from my house and I was able to get the car home. The previous day I had covered 120miles on the motorway - if it had happened then, I would have been in trouble.



The cause of this was the steering rack to cooler pipe (non pressurised) slightly rubbing against the auxiliary drive belt - located on the O/S of the engine. The pipe can be seen easily from above or even more clearly from underneath. The gradual rubbing of this pipe finally caused the pipe to split and the power steering fluid to jet directly onto the auxiliary drive belt, which in turn re-directed it all over the engine. Luckily, none of it got into the alternator.



I had a bit of trouble sourcing a replacement part - Rimmers' didn't have one and I couldn't find one at a scrappy. I eventually found one on ebay which came from a 1.8 petrol Rover 75. The part numbers were different but it looked the same so I gave it a shot. Luckily it fit - although it was a bit of a pain to change. Had to take off the O/S wheel and wheel arch cover and use a stubby spanner as access was minimal. The car was off the road for a week until the part arrived.



I have now secured the new pipe so it doesn't touch the auxiliary drive belt, using a couple of cable ties.



Anyway, worth checking if you haven't already, as it could have caused me a serious problem had it gone the day before.



Cheers

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