I've found some good info by searching through the forums, but could still use a bit of advice.

 

I've got a rusty '97 Legacy Brighton Wagon with 197K of love on it. I've been noticing a whine during slow speed steering that a mechanic told me was my front differential slowly wearing out. It's gone on for a month or two. Recently I noticed a leak under the car. Investigation reveals that my passenger side steering gear boot is totally shredded, fluid is leaking out and my power steering reservoir is low.

 

Is it worth a shot to top up the PS fluid, replace the boot and hope for the best? Or, is the power steering system just permanently broken, leaking and in need of replacement. It sounds like the steering gear boot is just to keep dust out of there, but if that's the case it seems coincidental that I am losing fluid from there at the same time that the boot fell apart.

 

cheers

the whine could be the power steering pump low. top it off with automatic transmission fluid. just the cheap stuff. also if the "tubes" on the rack are leaking, your power steering rack will probobly need to be replaced because you are correct, the "tubes" you see are dust bellows, and the true fluid seal is inside those where the moving parts are. once the fluid seal goes, the tubes aren't far behind. some people still rebuild those racks, its not a horrible job just to swap one if that's the route you wanna go.

Thanks for the advice! I've topped it up, so I'll see how it goes in the next few days. Something tells me that it's easiest to replace the rack and the broken boot at the same time, yes? Otherwise I'm disassembling twice.

at first glance it seems like it but it's not that odd that the fluid leak and ripped boot *appear* at the same time. the ripped boot could have caused moisture/contamination of the seal or the seal could have started leaking and the extra fluid inside the boot was the last straw for a 15 year old boot already close to wearing out.

 

if you don't want to do the job twice, just get a used rack and install it now.

 

although - personally subaru racks rarely fail and so i assume they are very robust. if i ever have one leak again like this i'm just adding some of that stop-leak stuff to it and see if that seals it up.

 

replacing the boot is pretty much useless on it's own to stop the leak, just as you surmised that is just a dust boot, there shouldn't be any fluid in there. either add the fluid or swap in another rack, that leak is highly unlikely to go away.

 

maybe you could get a super duty boot that can hold fluid, let it fill up and then it won't leak any more.

The other scenario is the boot cracked and fell apart from age, allowing rocks/dirt and other debris to get stuck to the rack which will then get pulled into the housing when you turn. It drags the dirt in along with it which destroys the seal.

 

Low steering fluid will make a whining sound when turning.

A bad differential will whine at speed (50mph or more in most cases) and change pitch, or disappear entirely, depending on load.

 

A leaking rack will not stop leaking. Swap it with a junkyard rack and put new boots and tie rods on it then you won't have to mess with it for a long time.