legacycentral bbs

My steering rack was leaking on a 'new' Legacy (172k mi). I got the rebuild kit for the rack from Subaru, replaced all the seals & put it back together. Now the rack itself does not seem to be leaking but Dexron comes out the top of the reservoir when the wheel is turned from one extreme to the other. It appears to have air bubbles in it, too. When I refilled the system I poured in till it was full then moved the wheel back and forth to remove the air in the system. But when I run it, it spews fluid. It was run for ~55 mi when leaking (before rebuild) and had a wonderful growl to the PS pump. Could it be a damaged pump or have I missed something in the rack itself? Thanks for any help.

Welcome to the BBS.

I would suspect something didn't get reinstalled properly in the rack and may be causing excessive pressure.

Regarding the growl from the PS pump. The bearing or the pump internals may be bad. You can rebuild it as well. Check out my post for more info.

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=24143

One important detail I managed to leave out of my original post is that there is no power assist in the steering.
So it doesn't appear to have any pressure at all. Is it possible that turning the steering wheel causes the fluid to flow back to the reservoir but the pump is not drawing & pressurizing the fluid?

If you had power assist before you disassembled the rack, and don't have it now, there is a very good chance something is not assembled properly in the rack. Usually turning the rack lock to lock will get the air out. It's usually a good idea to do with with the wheels off the ground so it puts less stress on everything.

The pump is a positive displacement pump, so as long as there is fluid in the resevoir and the pump is working, it will draw in fluid.