Hydraolic line failure at a bad time...

[Tigran Varosyan]

Hi Guys,

Emailing you all from a small coffee shop on Orcas Island WA. Friends and I
decided to take my 95 A6Q on a little road trip. Heading up some twisty
mountain roads, we spotted a deer, so we stopped to take some pictures. As
the car came to a halt, to my surprise there was blue-gray smoke pouring
from under the hood. 

After a bit of investigation and digging around I found that the power
steering pressure line developed a serious leak and that my reservoir was
pretty low.

The leak is located here:

Remove the plastic engine cover.
On the passenger side of the block, going over the head, there is a metal
hard pipe that goes to the power steering pump located between the heads.
Towards the back of the passenger head this hard pipe, it joins a rubber
high pressure hose via a threaded pressure coupling. 

It is this rubber hose that is leaking right behind the joint.

Due to how overpacked the car is, I left my tool kit at home. With the help
of the Park Ranger and some other motorists, I tried tightening the joint,
which did not help. We were able to slow the leak down by about 90% with a
hose clamp that is holding a tire patch over the hole. This however is a
very cheesy solution as the pressure in the line is causing blisters to form
in other parts of the hose. One of the guys happened to have half a quart of
power steering fluid, so I was able to make it down the mountain, while
feathering the steering, without running the reservoir dry.

Frankly, I could care less for the power steering - I can drive without it.
However, it looks like all accessories, including the alternator are driven
by the same belt, so there is no way to disconnect the power steering pump. 

My main concern now is to not set the whole car on fire - the location of
the leak is close to the exhaust pipe, which is where the smoke and stuff
came from in the first place. I am going to go buy a fire extinguisher just
in case.

Unfortunately, I am in total Podunk right now. Closest Audi dealer is more
than 300 miles away and we got about 350mi left for our trip. If any of you
guys have any bright ideas, I am all ears.

Far as permanent repair, I got a few questions too. If any of you guys know
the part number to this hose, I would appreciate it. I don't suppose that
this is something that I can replace with a generic part? Somehow I strongly
doubt that this hose will be in stock at my local stealership... Also, I
cannot see where the other side of the hose or where it goes to - Murphy's
Law would dictate that it goes to an impossible-to-reach location somewhere
behind the steering rack. Words of wisdom on the repair of this hose are
appreciated. 

Tyson Varosyan
Technical Manager, Uptime Technical Solutions LLC.
tyson at up-times.com
www.up-times.com 
206-715-TECH (8324)
UpTime/OnTime/AnyTime