PRESSURE TESTING POWER STEERING PUMP

[E. Roy Wendell IV]

To the contrary, pressure gauges in the required range are available 
from many industrial suppliers for about 100 - 200 dollar range. Try 
looking up Grainger, McMaster-Carr, and MSC or the nearest heavy 
equipment hydraulic shop. The trick is adapting said gauge to the odd 
Audi fittings. I'd cut a spare Audi hose in half myself and have a 
fitting that matches the gauge installed by the local hydraulic shop. 
As you may already know, the Bentley manual lists the nominal pressures 
and where and how they should be measured.

For the steering, there's only two components, rack and pump. The usual 
route of failure is leaking so no testing required. The braking system 
is a different issue, and where I will apply a pressure gauge next time 
I don't want to throw parts at the problem. On my last go around with 
type 44 hydraulics I ended up blowing the pump seals twice and a new 
line once because the pressure relief valve in the bomb jammed/clogged. 
Rather than figuring it out by way component failure analysis and parts 
swapping a gauge would have told me the story right away.

Roy

> From: Drew Boyd <qu4ttro at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: PRESSURE TESTING POWER STEERING PUMP
> To: Jeff Babcock <jbabcock at ispwest.com>
> Cc: quattro at audifans.com
> Message-ID: <14911cfe05042616333325e32a at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> in general, you dont.  power steering systems run in excess of 1200psi
> of the high pressure side. while there are tools to test it, they are
> cost prohibitive even for most shops.
>  Dodge PU, D-250, 318, auto
>     85 Audi 4k - - sold but still on the road
>     88 Audi 5kq
>     90 Audi 100q