$800 carte blanche

[Mike Arman]

>From: "Cat ^. .^ ~" <iceisit at earthlink.net>
>Subject: $800 carte blanche
>I went to Foreign Auto Parts store in East Hartford to buy a hose which run=
>s between Power Steering Pump and the Steering Rack. The last one blew ab=
>out a year ago. The guy said when my husband came in that he had bought =
>the same part a year ago and then returned it. I had the new part on my c=
>ar.
>So he made some calls and he told me that unless I had the system flushed o=
>ut properly then it would keep blowing parts and that he didn't want to be =
>responsible for it.
>So the parts guy sent me to a shop in Canton calleld Dynamic Auto and he sa=
>id that he had never ever in his life seen that hose blown, that he had no =
>experience with that particular problem (WTF?!) and that it might take some=
>time to diagnose it.
>AND that he wanted $800 carte blanche in repairs to *start* with, and that =
>we would go from there.
>Well, I then drove the car home, with manual steering and brakes, which see=
>med to take forever.
>For $800 I could buy a new power steering pump, a rack, and the complicated=
>fitting hose which broke !!!



RUN AWAY!!!!

At least he told you one thing that was true "Had no experience with that
particular problem". That's a pretty strong indication that YOU will be
funding HIS education if you let him near your car . . .

Top hose - take the old, blown, leaky hose to an industrial hydraulic
repair place - they do bulldozers and big trucks, etc, and they will take
your hose ends and put a new rubber hose between them. Audi hoses with only
2500psi are like toys to them. I had one done almost six years ago and it
hasn't leaked a drop since - cost was a whopping $25.00.

Get new banjo fittings for both ends of the hose - the hollow bolts that go
into the pump and rack - sounds like someone has really overtightened these
in a futile effort to stop a leak which was actually caused by trying to
re-use the four aluminum seal rings instead of replacing them - hey they do
cost about a whole dime each!

Tighten the banjo bolts to the specified torque - more they will break,
less they will leak. You MUST use new seal rings, or did I already say
that? Later model hoses use rubber o-rings instead of aluminum seal rings -
they also get replaced, also about a whole dime each.

PS pump - reseal kit costs $15, takes about an hour - only thing that ever
really goes wrong with them is they leak. Seal kit usually fixes that -
check the archives for "volcano syndrome." Not a real nice job, so you
*might* want to consider a lifetime guarantee rebuilt from Autozone or similar.

Rack - One and one only answer - Jorgen. Lifetime guarantee, $150 to $200
and they'll ship it right to you.

As far as flushing the system regularly, oh, about every five years or so
ought to do it. The parts monkey needs to be flushed first - and without delay.

Best Regards,

Mike Arman