e39 power steering no no

[moots]

last saturday I just needed to have a look at the front brake caliper rubber hoses for condition.so without starting the engine,I turned the steering (yea yea I got big biceps on both my arms) full lock left, and then right.hoses looked ok.went in for a cuppa,came back and guess what...the floor was flooded with power steering fluid.....!!WTF....???i thought...damn it there goes my steering rack seals...... took a deep breath,started engine and returned steering full straight.checked the steering tie rods rubber gaiters....looked ok with nil oil coming out off it.whew....what a relief. opened up the hood,saw splashes of oil (power steering oil) on the intake manifold and more oil below it and more wetness at the bottom.WTF?checked the power steering fluid level in the reservoir and saw that the level was on the low side.(i had it filled to almost full earlier just to finish up the balance of oil that I had) cleaned everything up with oil degreaser and re-checked with engine running......nil leaks..... called up my trusty mech ah foo of damansara kayu ara for advice and once again he never failed to let me down.he said that we must never turn the steering with the engine off or otherwise will risk tearing the steering rack oil seals.I was lucky he said. what happened was,when i turned the steering,the oil in the rack was pushed up into the reservoir untill full till it overflows thru the cap.if you look closely you will see that the reservoir cap has a small overflow hole on it.oil overflowed....cos the pump was not running to recirculate the oil thru the system....whew......what a scare......point to note for all.........

 

[deep3102]

lol...that reminds me to never fiddle with that pump on my own, got it replaced last week, costed a bomb...rather a BOMB...