niterider96cord

Problem is im leaking power steering fluid horribly. I have looked and looked and looked to figure out where it might be coming from but I keep coming back to the same location \/ What i dont understand is why it would be leaking power steering fluid from the transmission. Am i missing something?

I am about to just say screw it and yank it all out and say forget power steering but i figured id see what you guys had to say first.

Sorry for the bad pic, very difficult to get under neath the prelude.

mafia

Best way to find the leak IMO, is buy some degreaser Spray your bay, pressure wash it. Then you'll be able to track it much easier.

minilogoguy18

West way to look at leaks, from the bottom, do like said, clean the bay and look from the top before looking underneath.

niterider96cord

alright so cleaned the engine with degreaser and pressure wash both top and bottom. Waited until it was mostly dry and took a look. top side everything was dry not even left over water, no leak. bottoms side, jacked the car up and took a better picture of what im looking at and can cofirm this is indeed where the leak is coming from.

How is this happening!!!? I do not understand, powersteering is the only fluid that is disappearing, all other fluids stay the same.

1funryd

Does your VSS have the two hoses going into it? This would be a 4th gen VSS. If so, that is where you powersteering fluid comes from.

The VSS uses the powersteering fluid. I have it on my H23 swapped 3rd gen Prelude.

One or both of those small powersteering hoses are leaking due to age and or a crack somewhere on them. Just replace them and you are good.

Here are pics:

carnot

X2, likely leaking from lines going to/from VSS.

minilogoguy18

Well you do seem to have a diff seal leak, pretty easy fix, might wanna do something about it before you destroy fifth gear in your car from low fluid.

Make a pin ***** in the inner tie rod boots, if the seals at the rack ends are leaking it'll fill those boots and you may not see it right away.

niterider96cord

How do I fix the seal leak? I have a Chiltons manual but the driveshaft removal seems to be a pain in the ***. Is there a "easy" way?

Also can you elaborate a little more on the second part of your post? The seals on rack show no sign of leaking and dont look to be in bad condition either.

niterider96cord

Both hoses good condition no leaking/cracking whatsoever.

minilogoguy18

Chilton manuals suck, get the one published by Honda, the Helms.

I meant the rubber boots on the power steering rack ends, poke a tiny hole in each one, when the rack end seals leak you wont see any fluid right away because it'll fill those up like water balloons.

5SpdH22

get a flywheel cover too

InvaderTrax

And replace that missing bolt

niterider96cord

Alright besides my missing misc. items. What am I needing to replace to stop the leaking, that is my primary concern right now.

Also to minilogoguy18 I will ***** the boots this weekend, what will this tell me pertaining to the leak? Say they are filled with liquid, or not.

carnot

If you ***** the boots covering the rack ends and fluid leaks out this means that the actual rack itself is leaking and you will likely need to get a remand rack.

The fluid leak at the transmission where the intermediate shaft enters is independent of your power steering fluid leak. You need to address both fluid leaks. I would trace the power steering lines going to/from the VSS to see if there is a leak somewhere else that is causing power steering fluid to leak down and drip from the transmission housing.

niterider96cord

Hello again honda-tech. I have been in North Dakota for the past couple years and the poor girl has been sitting in garage collecting dust this whole time but a little update she is still having leaking problems.. I did replace the rack and it seems to of subsided a little bit but it's still disappearing from somewhere. When I get back I will be doing differential seal which seems to have never ending amount of transmission fluid. (Took the filler bolt out to add fluid and it started coming out so just put the bolt back on.) Then clean it up again and add UV dye to the fluid to help track it down.

holmesnmanny

It might be possible for fluid to leak at the top of the vss into the transmission. My brother mentioned something about this happening to him but i found it hard to believe at the time.

No18

Once on mine the actual shaft seal for the VSS started leaking. My PS fluid would disappear, but I could never find where it went. It wasn't until i dumped almost a gallon of PS fluid into my PS system that it started puking out the vent on top of the transmission. It can leak directly into the transmission. You may just have a leaky axle seal as well, so it's leaking out of there.

snobordboy

If there is no other leak from the power steering system, and you keep adding fluid to it, and the tranny is over-full, well that makes sense.

So try swapping out to a different Vss, and see if the PS leak stops.

Drain the tranny, do the axle seal, and then re-fill and see how it goes.

Might want to do a second flush of good fluid in there, just to make sure the PS fluid mixing with trans fluid has not done damage to syncros.

holmesnmanny

It's not just the vss, it's the entire assembly, with the gear. However, you can order the internal orings and swap them in. You may as well get those two hoses as well.