99 Mercury Marquis is leaking power steering fluid from the top of the power steering box. I had taken to a mechanic a few months ago and he did some adjustments on the steering box or that is what he said. i had a small leak afterwards, and I put some Lucas stop leak in it. It lasted for a while and I noticed the other day it was "winding" pretty badly and looked under my car and seen a good amount of fluid was leaking out. I did a little investigating and seen that the fluid was puddled on top of the steering box screw. i am a female and dont know much about cars.... please HELP
Somebody needs to put some dye in the power steering system and check where the leak is actually coming from.
is this an easy process? I am limited on money as of right now. i am single mom of 2. having to work on it as I can. would this "need" to be done by a professional?
If it is actually coming from the steering box that means seals and other parts are worn out and it needs to be replaced. (As you discovered "stop leak" type products are at best a temporary bandaid.) However it is much more common for hoses to leak than the steering box itself, so as @doc says trace where the leak is actually coming from using some UV dye.
This video demonstrates the use of dye to find an engine oil leak which would be the same procedure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYzTyTlnsr8
Thanks @chucktobias for this.
thanks. im gonna try this and see if i can find where the leak is actually coming from. Is it possible that maybe previous mechanic tightened the screw too much ? He first made adjustments because car was "wandering" while driving on interstate.
That adjustment is normally not touched. Chances are your steering box is worn out. Carefully tightening that sector shaft preload screw can provide some temporary relief but if not done correctly can accelerate steering box wear and make matters worse. It would not cause a leak though.
@chucktobias thank you for this information. I had taken it, in previous months, to a well known car repair shop in my area and they said i needed a new rack and pinion and new ball joints and bearings. they gave me an estimate of nearly 3.000. There is simply no way i can afford this. prior to any leaks my ONLY issue was the wandering on the roadway. After the visit to this repair shop, i had gotten a second opinion and that guy told me that my car didnt have a rack and pinion. so at this point I dont know who was trying to doop me. But, Ive definitely gotten more clarity on where to start from here. i appreciate your time and will be trying to find someone to do the dye test soon.
I had taken it, in previous months, to a well known car repair shop in my area and they said i needed a new rack and pinion and new ball joints and bearings. they gave me an estimate of nearly 3.000.
According to the rockauto.com parts database, that car does not have a rack and pinion steering system, it has an old-school steering box. So either rockauto is wrong or the well-known repair shop was feeding you a line of bull. Any good mechanic would be able to easily check ball joints and bearings. They would not cost anywhere near $3000 to replace if needed.
If the steering box itself leaks the main places would be the seals at the steering column shaft (lower left in this photo), or the pitman arm (top). The photo is actually upside down, the pitman arm shaft would be at the bottom with the steering box mounted in the car.
