RE: Ur Q Steering reservoir leaks

["Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz@kla-tencor.com>]

>       Well I finally got a few minutes to start seeking out electrical
> gremlins and fixing    
> minor details on my '83 Quattro. I pushed it out of the garage and was
> greeted
> with a 
> fairly large pool of ATF on the floor. No problem, clean it up, clean the
> reservoir up.
> Well the stuff is fairly oozing out. What do you think? Is it a bad gasket
> on
> the reservoir cap, or is it something more ominous? 
> 
... it may be a simple non-problem or a real one.  Many people overfill the
reservoir because they remove the cap and see no fluid in there at all so
they whip out the ATF Dexron and fill it up.  Well, the way the system works
on the QTC is that the contents of the reservoir get pumped into the brake
accumulator ... to check the fluid level you are supposed to depress the
brake pedal 20-40 times to relieve the pressure, THEN check the fluid level.
If you refill the reservoir when the accumulator is pressurized then any
flow back to the reservoir is likely to overfill it and leak out.  I know
that I have done this ... and I'll bet there are very few ur-q owners that
haven't ... opening up a cap and seeing an empty reservoir tend to evoke a
quick response!

If you find that the fluid level in the reservoir doesn't change after
pumping the brakes (as was the case for a gentleman I was talking with at
Thunderhill on Saturday) that means that your pressure accumulator needs to
be replaced (or repressurized).  If you find that the reservoir refills with
the car sitting for a few days, I'd look for a leak in the brake servo.

HTH!
Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)