Thread: Power steering leak

So I put my car up on the jacks today to take a look at a few things, one was a grinding which I thought might be the wheel bearing but ended up being a shield dragging on the rotor. Thing left a nice little groove but nothing that bad. While I was under there I was taking a look into a clunk I had been feeling. If I had my foot on the brake and I turn the wheel side to side I could feel it in the brakes and my passenger could feel it in his feet as well. The steering felt a bit loose, almost like a dead spot when going straight. I was looking at the power steering pump reservoir and noticed fluid on it and looks like it had leaked a bit. I checked the fluid and it was down a bit and said to add some so I'm doing that but I also cleaned off the area with brake cleaner as I couldn't tell exactly where the fluid was coming from. Now I also took the belt off so I could check the pulley and it has a bit of play in and out, should it have anything like that? Let me know if there is anything else I should check, or if you know what that damn clunk is from!

Update: Ok did a little more digging and finally had someone to give me a hand. From what I can tell its coming from the steering shaft, when I got under the car the boot or cover for the shaft was off and I could see it. The shaft has surface rust. I was under the passenger side and then took the drivers side tire off. I thought the grinding and the steering were related but it may be that they aren't.

Well I just filled it up, overfilled actually but haven't run it for more than a few seconds so I'm going to pull some fluid out and see how it works. After I filled it up I couldn't feel it anymore but until I test it I'm not certain. I see the rack and shouldn't be that hard to take off but I don't look forward to laying on my back undoing it and all lol. Thanks for the input.