[Vwdiesel] p/s reservoir replacement

[Scott Kair]

    Thanks to those who responded to my query on replacing the power
steering reservoir in my 92 ECO.  I've never quite understood the perceived
need for power-assisted steering in a Jetta, but it came with the car....
    The swap was straightforward, but there were some lessons learned.  The
reservoir is plastic, with barbed inlet and outlet connections for the
hoses.  The connections are of different sizes, so misconnecting one becomes
apparent before any damage can be done.
    The original leak resulted from a wear abrasion on the side of the
reservoir, probably from contact with the mounting bracket.  I'd patched it
with JB Weld, and that held.  What I didn't discover until the replacement
was that the smaller barbed connection apparently cracked when I moved the
reservoir around to smear on the JB.
    When I removed the hose from the smaller connection, the barbed end
broke off and stayed in the hose. As it broke off flush in the hose, I had
to clip about 1/2" off the end of the hose.  Fortunately, the hose was long
enough that it didn't have to be replaced.
    Both problems seem to be related to aged and brittle plastic.
    The standard hose clamps were encrusted with gunk, so plan on replacing
them, too.
    Flushing the system would have required a helper that I didn't have.  As
Loren pointed out, the existing fluid was pretty well contaminated.  Once I
installed the new reservoir and filled it, I started the car, turned the
wheel lock to lock, shut down, and drained fluid from the hose where it
connects to the pump under the car, refilled, and repeated several times
until the fluid in the reservoir was semi-clear.
    As this caused momentary chirping on start up, it probably would have
been better to disconnect the small hose on the reservoir and keep the
system topped while having a helper turn the steering wheel.  This would
have maintained fluid flow to the pump while flushing more completely.
Expect to use a bare minimum of three quarts of fluid during the process,
and a large bag of cat litter should a hose slip out of the drain pan even
momentarily.
    The system seems to be self-bleeding, with any trapped air bubbles
working their way out in the reservoir.  Count on checking the level
frequently for a couple of days.
    HTH,
    Scott Kair