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where does the o-ring fit?

I bought the MasterPro® Power Steering Hose 80648 - Pressure Line Assembly from O'Reilly Auto Parts. Will do this project this tomorrow.

The package comes with 2 washers and 1 single o-ring. The o-ring appears to be quite small, not sure if this o-ring is for the sensor or else where?

Attached are two photos. Area 1 is where the two pieces of hoses (flexible vs. rigid) connects. Area 2 is the rigid hose to rack I think. And area 3 is flexible hose end to the pump (where the sensor is).

By appearance, the o-ring fits the rigid line end at area 2. It can be slide over the rigid line and then rest on the "skirt" there. If it fits at area 1, then it will be sitting in between the two ends of the hoses. Area 3 - the sensor connection seems to be too big relative to this o-ring (but I could be wrong).

Anybody knows where this o-ring should go? And are there additional o-rings in the whole set up that I need to either reuse or buy new?

Thanks!
 

Attachments

Want to add more questions:

1. meccanoble in post #39 implied that the single o-ring is used in Area 2 (see photo in post #41 ). So how does the connection in Area 1 seal without an o-ring? Maybe meccanoble's comment is specific to the genuine OEM part which appears to come as one piece screwed tight including an o-ring hidden from view? MasterPro has them as two separate pieces.

2. The MasterPro part does not have the bracket in the middle of the flexible hose. Can the bracket from the old part be reused in the new line?

3. What is the tightening torque for the connection between the flexible and the rigid hose (i.e. Area 1 in the photo of post #41 )?
 
will start project in 12 hours

Folks, I will start replacing the PS line in 12 hours. Appreciate if you can take a look at my last two posts to provide feedback.

I am most confused re where to put the single o-ring that came with the new part - at the end of the hard line connecting the steering rack side, or between the flexible/soft hose and the hard line hose?

Thanks!
 
Can someone tell me if this will work for my 2005 SL AWD mo? Or if I need additional parts. I have read through all of these forums and I am over processing and confusing myself on what parts to get. Doesn't help that auto zone and O'Reillys sells multiple units.
BenHeiss,

From what I gather (i.e. take with a grain of salt) - the power steering pressure line is made up of two separate segments:

1. One is a soft hose wrapped (in part, or in case of MasterPro part entirely) in shinning aluminum sleeve. This hose is located higher than the 2nd segment described below, and it is also bigger in diameter. On the higher side of this hose is the "famous" bonjo bolt (some folks here call it the "bulb"), and right below that is where the power steering sensor is. The bonjo bolt connects to the power steering pump. The P/S fluid is pumped from the pump to this soft hose, and therefore this hose is also referred to as "from the pump" in some online catalogs.

2. Second segment is smaller in diameter, and rigid/hard tubing made of metal, and is bent in multiple locations. One end connects to the soft hose above, and the other end goes to the steering rack (called "rack" here). This hose is referred to as "to the rack".

P/S fluid in both segments are pressurized by the P/S pump. While it is possible to replace one of the two instead of both, I never verified if you can mismatch a after market hose to the original hose there (in terms of size of connections between the two hoses). I am also surprised to see that complete set is cheaper than buying one of the two hoses (not sure why).
 
project in session

I just finished taking things apart tonight. Will work on putting new parts in tomorrow and write a note learning after that.

Meanwhile,
1. Anybody knows the torque for the connection between the soft hose and the hard rigid hose? It seems the OEM part comes as one single piece with these two already screwed together? The MasterPro part comes as two separate pieces. When I unscrew the old part, this connection was the hardest to unscrew. Without knowing the torque spec, I may not make it tight enough to prevent leaking. By the way, there is no o-ring here. The slightly flat end of the hard line hose serves as a "crush washer" to provide the seal, I think. Hence torque spec is critical.

2. How did you guys use a torque wrench to tighten the hard line to steering rack? There is so little room there that I had to use a very small adjustable wrench to unscrew this. I can't imagine any torque wrench can possibly have enough room here.

Thanks!
 
The hard tubing end going to the rack has a little O ring so do not over tighten. FSM says 11-18 ft.lb. Use a 1/4 inch drive torque wrench or else you will over tighten. I may have just tighten it by touch. Can't remember. Snug then just less than a quarter turn.

The soft hose end going to the hard tubing fitting is not mentioned in the manual. If its a compression fitting then just tighten it well. More than the hard tubing going to the rack end. If it leaks, tighten it some more. Use a big wrench to hold the fitting. Good luck.

Don't you have the FSM?

Sensor torque specs in not mentioned either. Just tighten it well.
 
Hey guys, sorry for late reply. Was busy doing things on other car.

I didn't torque ANYTHING. The first post discusses torques. The piece I purchased from autozone was 1 piece. I did not disconnect anything and its highly possible the o-ring that I felt did not fit the tip (the one that was maximized in view in a recent post) was to be used in the section that seperates hardline from soft. I just made sure that part was very tight. The hardline going into the steering column (driver side of car) was EXTREMELY difficult to remove and install. You just have to take a small wrench and take your time. I tightened until I felt I would do damage and got lucky I guess. The sensor was installed with 2 adjustable wrenches. I tightened it as much as possible. At some point, you feel like you may start stripping and you can say that's tightest you want to do. This was removed once because I forgot to put the O-ring on. Thankfully I didn't try to put it in car prior to first removal on new line.

I reused the metal holder (don't forget the rubber piece inside which protects line from getting damaged). A previous post I discussed all the things that would be reused.

Remember to breathe and take your time. When you put fluid back in, check below and make sure you see no leaks before you even put the tire back on. PM me your number if you need more help.
 
BlueHorse, I just finished doing the PS hose on Saturday. I am at a loss of how a torque wrench would fit in the area plus it would have to be paired with a crowfoot metrical wrench. I DID use a flare nut wrench, and being extremely careful I tightened it until it stopped, and then gave it a 1/4 turn. I followed the directions for getting the air bubbles out of the system with the engine off, key to ACC position, and then with the engine running. I made sure there were no leaks before I reinstalled the tires and all other bits and pieces.
 
I just spent all day replacing my ps hose and now my leak is worse. Ill look into it tomorrow. Hopefuly its something simple i missed.
Can you see where the leak is coming from? Tighten all areas, even if you have to use an adjustable wrench, just try not to strip anything. I'm assuming its leaking at either the hardline to driver side steering column, the banjo bolt (next to sensor) or the right angle connection from soft line to hard line. Tighten all. Hopefully you used all necessary O-rings and washers where recommended on this thread.
 
Finally, did it this weekend, took me about 8 hours in total. Not an easy job, primarily due to small space to outmaneuver parts/tools and hands under the car, as well as I used MasterPro parts from O'Reilly where the flexible and hard line hoses come in as separate pieces.

The practice of "Remember to breathe and take your time." definitely helps in this case. I spend 3 hours Friday evening to take things apart, and another 4 hours Sat to put things back on including various trials and errors, and another 1 hour to clean up the old spills and test.

Couple of things to note:
1. Wiper arm is made of two segments and is spring loaded. After the nuts are removed, make sure you press down the middle of the arm flat against the window glass so the tension at the bolt is even around its circumference, then it will be easy to move the whole arm out. Also note that at the end when you put arms back and start to tighten the nuts, use on hard holding the wiper arm to balance the torque from your tightening. This will prevent damage to the spline. I did strip the spline a bit, but after tightening the nuts, both arms moved well.

2. The bolt at the back of the engine give me most trouble - tight space so can only get a short wrench in there. Almost stripped the bolt badly. Maybe I tried it when engine was still hot. Suggest wait till engine cold to do this.

3. The unscrewing and tightening of the hose to steering rack connection is difficult due to tight space. Using a crowfoot and also an extension worked well for me (including torque it to the right spec, with some calculation due to the crowfoot change the leverage).

4. Now, here is the difference of MasterPro part from O'Reilly vs. the original part: it has no brackets (there are two set of brackets from the original part), and no sensor, and the flexible hose and hard line hose came as two separate pieces. I reused old brackets and sensor. But here is why it it is tedious:
a. Tightening the two hoses is not difficult, but I had to figuer out the right torque. I tighten it to about 21~15 foot lbs.
b. You have to be careful about the angle the two are connected. There are multiple hoses/lines down there, and space is tight, so incorrect angel would not fit. I took the two apart from the original part because I wanted to see if there is an o-ring there, but I did this before I observe the angel the two hoses are aligned! So I had to slide the two separate pieces back in car (quite an effort) and then try to piece them together at the 3 connections (including banjo bolt, hose to rack and this connection of the two hoses) so I know which angel the new hoses should be connected. I chose to tighten the two hoses before putting the whole new part into car, because I want to make sure the connection is tighten and there is just not enough room under car to make sure of that. This whole game plan took me at least 1 hour of time (at least). The hard line can be bent a bit, so you don't have to be 100% exact in the alignment of the two hoses.

5. Observe and note exactly how the whole end to end pressure line goes underneath the car. Take photos of various angle, so later on you don't have to experiment like I did.

6. The o-ring that came with the part is for the hard line hose to rack connection. There is no o-ring between the flexible and hard line hoses (it is a crush seal). The bonjo bolt requires 2 copper ring which are included in the new part. I did not have a new o-ring for the sensor, so I reused both the old sensor and its old o-ring.

7. I tighten the sensor quite hard. Used a vise to hold it in place when tighten. Also two adjustable wrenches should work equally well.

8. I connect the lower bracket first (don't tighten it yet), then the hose to rack connection (again, don't tighten it yet), then use a small rope to hang the upper racket/hose to the engine block so that it will not fall down. This allows me to put copper washers and connect bonjo bolt all by myself. Then I went back tighten the hose to rack connection, the lower bracket, bonjo bolt, then the higher bracket.

9. Pay attention to the orientation of the lower bracket, so that it is properly installed on the hose.

10. I used about 80% of a quart to fill up the lost ps fluid. During bleeding, I could hear slight friction noise from the ps pump only when the steering wheel goes to the far left/right end. I am not sure if this is new after the DIY or it has been like that before though.

Car now steers about the same as before. If steering is easier than before, I have to say that I can't tell really. There is no more dripping of oil on the floor (at least for now). That feels great.

Now I can concentrate on whether the car is leaking engine oil or it is burning oil.
 
great feedback and spot on with everything. I did all my work on a cold engine and I'm glad there is no o-ring between hard/soft line. Yea the picture idea is definitely recommended as I spent a lot of trial and error trying to remember how the fitment was.

Regarding fitment, don't force anything. Between the bracket (2 bolts) and that hardline, they sit next very close to each other. If your angle gets one in but you have to go through hell to do the other, something is not right. You will have to stress it a little but I ran into angles that were just too difficult and that was one of the most frustrating parts of the job. I was so upset at times that it made me more surprised that I finished with no issues (so far - 1.5+ weeks later - 200+ miles later.
 
Had the dealer R&R my Power Steering hose assembly: $190.00+ 2 connectors $6.46 and 2 fluids $12.08+ 2 hours labor 141.46 = $350.00. Thought it was reasonable.
123K mi. It started leaking after the Mo did a 180 in a dirt field.
Dealer said I should also change my struts and dust boots and both lower control arms.
 
First post here and have a small question. I am in the middle of replacing the power steering line and can not seem to get the pressure sensor plug to budge. Everything else is loose and ready to remove sans this (thanks to some great advice here). Any tips? TIA trent
 
If you are trying to remove the socket connection of the sensor try using a flat screw driver (place it in between where it separates then turn)while pushing the tab.

If you are trying to remove the sensor from the old tubing assembly, you need two wrenches going the opposite ways. One holding the sensor and the other the square base.
 
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