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1994 Camry Leaking Power Steering Fluid
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randomoutburst
New User
Jan 9, 2011, 9:31 PM
Post #1 of 2
(3935 views)
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1994 Camry Leaking Power Steering Fluid
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My husband and I bought a 1994 Toyota Camry (3.0L V6) from a friend 2.5 years ago. It had 144k miles at the time. Since purchasing it, we've replaced the radiator, power steering pump, and the rack and pinion. Everything else always checks out. We replaced the rack and pinion (R&P) and pump after a year because we developed a fast leak (I'm talking 10 minutes after filling the reservoir, it was empty). After replacing the R&P, the high pressure hose burst so we had that replaced. It still had a leak, albiet a very slow one. We didn't have enough money to get it checked out again, so we left it alone and just refilled the reservoir as necessary, about once a week when it got below the min.
We've just kept filling it up for a year and a half and everything's been fine. We are now up at 194k miles. We recently came into extra cash and decided to finally get it fixed. The mechanic said the rack and pinion was installed incorrectly and that's why it was leaking!! They replaced it (at a fraction of the cost we originally paid) and we immediately noticed that the car felt much better. It seemed fixed. And it was...as long as the car wasn't driven long distances at high speeds. In city driving doesn't seem to cause a problem.
We took it back to the mechanic and he cannot find evidence of a leak, despite the missing fluid. This mechanic has known my husband's family for a decade and he has always done them right, so we don't think anything's awry on his end.
Any idea what this could be? Could this be indicative of something more serious? We were considering getting a larger vehicle, and if this is something that will be expensive or can't be fixed, we don't want to waste more money trying to fix it when it could be put to better use as a down payment on a newer vehicle.
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Hammer Time
Ultimate Carjunky
/ Moderator
Jan 10, 2011, 5:58 AM
Post #2 of 2
(3922 views)
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Re: 1994 Camry Leaking Power Steering Fluid
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The fluid can't simply just disappear. The only place it could have gone would be into the bellows boots at each end of the rack, caused by a leaking rack. It usually eventually leaks from there too but it will contain it for a while if the boot has no holes in it.
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