Hydraolic line failure at a bad time...

[Grant Lenahan]

My only "bright" idea is that you need to replace the hose.  before you 
throw rotting veggies at me, you might be able to get away with a patch 
- sans high pressure fittings -- for the duration of this trip if you 
get a new hose of the same diameter, and a bunch of hose clamps.  You 
might have to get two, or several hoses to get on to go on the hard 
line.

The other option is to have a hose made - hose plus fitting at either a 
good auto-repair place, or maybe even a factory supply / machine tool 
type place.  Any around?

Sorry for your predicament.

Grant
On Aug 13, 2006, at 1:30 PM, Tigran Varosyan wrote:

> 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
>
>
>
>
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