That little hose wasn't so easy -- Power steering return hose

So it's been mentioned that you should take an extra 5 mins to proactively replace the 4" long power steering return hose in the front of the car above the front differential during your next oil change.

Well, let me tell you, if you still have your front differential, it's no 5 minute job! In fact, there will be moments that you will think it has become a 10 hour+ job of dismantling the entire front of the car to get that hose back on!

The issue is that the section of hose is only 4 inches long, and it's very thick rubber that doesn't want to bend, and you can't get your hands into the area from above or below to bend that hose at an extreme angle to get it on to the pipes that are not lined up with each other.

Getting it off wasn't even fun. I ended up using a long knife to cut the hose at the ends and then push it off. When I got off the old hose, it looked in great shape both inside and out with no signs of cracking, stiffening, or ballooning.

I also found it hard to buy 1/2" inner diameter power steering return hose locally. I had to have a NAPA store order it, and then drive a long way to the closest NAPA to pick it up. No other part stores had the right size. So get the hose before you start the project! You can definitely mail order it if you don't have a NAPA nearby.

I'll update this thread with some videos shortly to show why it's a difficult job and how I found a way to do it. It was another Lamborghini Chinese puzzle, because it's clear that hose was put on while they were assembling the car, with no intention to make it easy to change. If it weren't for some really long curved needle nose pliers in my tool kit, along with some tricks I stumbled on at the time to get the hose back on, I would not have been able to do the job without major disassembly of the car (such as dropping the front diff).

 

Damn! I was under the impression it was an easy job too. I have my car on the ramp at the moment & I have no front diff, so maybe I really should tackle it right now! Thanks for the info.

Here's my video showing what I am talking about above:

 

 

Stimpy, in hindsight, do you think heating the hose in a mircowave oven, to make the hose softer/ more flexible. would be worthwhile?

Phil, why not remove the banjo fitting from the rack? That way you slip the hose onto the fitting off the car, slip the hose on to the pipe with fitting attached to opposite end, connect the fitting to the rack.

 

1 hour ago, gmendoza said:

Phil, why not remove the banjo fitting from the rack? That way you slip the hose onto the fitting off the car, slip the hose on to the pipe with fitting attached to opposite end, connect the fitting to the rack.

 

Can you post a pic of which fitting and showing how you would get to it? So little room to work with the front diff in place, but I am very open to learning about better ways to do things!

2 hours ago, Kenny94945 said:

Stimpy, in hindsight, do you think heating the hose in a mircowave oven, to make the hose softer/ more flexible. would be worthwhile?

I’d use hot water instead of a microwave, but it’s so slow going with the limited access that I think it would cool before you could benefit from the softer warm rubber.

8 minutes ago, Stimpy said:

I’d use hot water instead of a microwave, but it’s so slow going with the limited access that I think it would cool before you could benefit from the softer warm rubber.

Did you do it from under the car?

I had mine done a year or so ago and they took the trunk lining out and did it from the top. I dont remember them complaining but when I asked them to do it they said good as they have seen them go bad.

2 minutes ago, yellomurci said:

Did you do it from under the car?

I had mine done a year or so ago and they took the trunk lining out and did it from the top. I dont remember them complaining but when I asked them to do it they said good as they have seen them go bad.

Almost all from the top. I’d like to learn how they did it.  Still have your front diff? How many hours did they charge?

As gmendoza says, you could remove the banjo fitting on the steering fluid bleeder assembly and get a little more room.  Also that rigid pipe that the banjo fitting goes onto,and joins up the LH and RH dampers, could also be dropped a little bit by undoing the 6mm bolts near the anti-roll bar mounts. 

I did it from the top on a friend's AWD car. Not the easiest thing in the world, but it didn't take long at all to replace. 

Changing this on a 2WD car from the bottom takes less time than refilling the power steering/suspension lift tank. 

I just finished replacing this hose.  It took 3 hours for the job.  I can do it in 1 hour the next time because of experience.

My method was the same as Stimpy's.  I did not remove any other hoses or hard lines.

It was difficult to buy a new hose.  Napa sells these power steering hoses at 6ft length.  They said they didn't have anything shorter.  Given that I only needed a few inches, I kept searching and was able to find a 3ft hose, part # 7-6075.

Note:  -My original hose was in good condition outside and inside, but I couldn't be sure until I can see it outside of the car.

           -The new hose has the same ID but it is only about half as thick on OD.  The old hose is very thick and not yielding.

           -Removing the original hose is not easy.  The technique I used was to 1) Cut the hose in half right in the center  2) Let the fluid drip out until that stops.  One quart will come out           3) Cut slits at both ends of hose  4) Push hose off with a screw driver

           - For the new hose, the optimal length is 4".  Anything longer you will have a difficult time getting it on, and anything shorter you will have trouble getting the hose to seal correctly

           -Stimpy's tip of using the wire tie to pull the hose during installation was great (Thank you Stimpy!!!)

           -I  used a hair dryer with a diffuser to soften the hose while it was in place at one end.  This helped a lot with making the hose flexible to be able to slide on to the other end

          -This is also a good time to flush out the power steering fluid

 

I love seeing the ingenuity, creativity and straight-up brass balls you guys have to take on these projects with your cars. Awesome stuff and thanks for sharing!