Power steering troubles

[Viper Specialty]

What I don't understand is why people keep trying to do this themselves to save a couple bucks, and keep risking repair failures... all while certain vendors such as us have these lines and fittings on the shelf, rebuilt, and ready to go without any question as to whether you got the defective type that is going to come apart, lose your power steering, ruin your power steering pump, overheat your engine, and create a mess of biblical proportions under your hood.

I ask again... is THAT worth 100 bucks? Really?

I apologize how I am coming off here, but over the last year this market has begun to make me shake my head more than I ever thought possible. I feel like I am talking to the wall most of the time.

 

[malcoll]

Dan... I went to your website to find out about just replacing the entire hose assembly with an aftermarket from you, but could not find it on your website, and the website was slow. So I bought the fitting for $73 locally and replaced it... no failure yet (guess we'll see) but why on this earth would I spend money an extra $100 if I don't need to? And by the way, the new fitting had almost the identical clip in it that my OEM had... took less than one hour for the entire repair........

 

[Viper Specialty]

Dan... I went to your website to find out about just replacing the entire hose assembly with an aftermarket from you, but could not find it on your website, and the website was slow. So I bought the fitting for $73 locally and replaced it... no failure yet (guess we'll see) but why on this earth would I spend money an extra $100 if I don't need to? And by the way, the new fitting had almost the identical clip in it that my OEM had... took less than one hour for the entire repair........

The answer is simple. The 100 bucks assures that you have a correctly designed part, and also covers the cost of removing your old fittings. We don't charge any more for the fittings, but we need to assure we do the line work as that is the only source of correct clips right now, and ruining them is not an option if the process is to continue.

Sure, the replacements look correct to an untrained eye- that is until they decide to come apart. I am not saying it WILL, but MANY, MANY, MANY of them have. The clip is NOT formed correctly in the replacements, end of story.

Let me put it to you this way... 100 bucks is a lot less than the potential $200 tow bill, the replacement $400 pump, the new line and fitting you will need again, the cleaning costs, and worst case scenario, the engine fire that would result if you happened to have a PS fluid filled car rather than ATF. I suppose its also worth mentioning the potential accident, overheated engine, or any other one of a hundred scenarios that could result from a power steering line disconnecting from the pump at full line pressure while the car is moving.

Saving money, isnt always saving money. Just sometimes, the knowledge benefit dealing with businesses who actually work on these cars every day at an engineering level can be worth more than the few extra bucks they may charge over someone who drops a part in a box to you from 2000 miles away and says "Good Luck!". This is a very well known problem, and yet so far as I know, I am the only one of there who actually took the time to identify the problem, track down the manufacturer, and come up with a method of preventing it from happening to any of our customers.

 

[Dan Cragin]

Thanks Dan for the follow-up. We had 4 of these hoses-fittings fail in the course of one month. We contacted Chrysler, filled out the warranty return forms and asked for some sort of explanation. They just kept sending new parts with the same issue. We thought it might be the groove in the new hose as we ended up putting a new fitting on a old hose and it was fine. It is quite frustrating as when the hose lets loose it make a big mess. It is not good when a client's car comes back on a flatbed, thinking it was an install error.

We try to look out for the customer, and when we suggest something its not just to improve our bottom line, we really want to help you guys and have trouble free cars.

Hope this helps explain the issue.

 

[malcoll]

Seems to be working fine so far... kept the original hose just replaced the fitting.... interestingly while I am not an "engineer"... I did pull out the "clip" in the new fitting and compared it to the OEM clip.. it was identical in size, shape, tension (as best I could tell) and it all went back together fine. It's not necessarily saving money.. it's about the satisfaction of being able to do my own work and know how it was done. Plus.... Dan.... you are about 1,000 miles away from me... not very realistic to take to you..... maybe you could share a link to your part so it would be easier to find when I have to replace this one.....

 

[Viper Specialty]

Seems to be working fine so far... kept the original hose just replaced the fitting.... interestingly while I am not an "engineer"... I did pull out the "clip" in the new fitting and compared it to the OEM clip.. it was identical in size, shape, tension (as best I could tell) and it all went back together fine. It's not necessarily saving money.. it's about the satisfaction of being able to do my own work and know how it was done. Plus.... Dan.... you are about 1,000 miles away from me... not very realistic to take to you..... maybe you could share a link to your part so it would be easier to find when I have to replace this one.....

I understand where you are coming from, I really do.

With regard to your comment about "taking it here", thats not at all what I was referring to. We offer a Line Exchange service. You get a good line and two good fittings, and you send back your old line and fittings which we disassemble and rebuild for the next guy. Or, we can rebuild your exact line if requested, either upper and lower fitting, or just upper is is the case 90% of the time.

 

[malcoll]

ViperDad... post #12 has the fitting part number in it....fitting: 52088914AA...post #20 shows the fitting after cutting it with a dremel cut off wheel...... Good luck!

 

[ViperDad]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. After seeing the needed cut, I simplified by mounting the ends on a small lathe and slow speed cut with a little lubrication. This gave total control on the cuts with minimal risk of nicking the pipe. Two minute job! As far as ongoing issues with this hose, I suspect there are two likely conditions of early fails. The first is that the exit line out of the pump sees lots of vibrations/flexing from the engine. The solution to minimizing that is to immobilize the pipe and the hex head. That should keep the o-ring from being jiggled around. The second likely failure is the seal point from the pipe against the o-ring. The pipe is shaped during manufacture but the surface finish is left as is. I'm going to polish the area to remove the rough surface and that should also cut the wear on the o-ring. In summary the job should run about 50 bucks or an additional 20 to have a shop cut it off. Partsgeek.com has the fittings for 20 and change.

 

[ViperDad]

I read some earlier emails and Dan makes good points of having it done right. For me it's all about knowing my car. If I hadn't taken it apart I wouldn't have seen my observations. The more I thought about it the more certain I am that the oring gets sandpapered by the rough texture of the pipe surface. I haven't figured it out yet but a properly clamped fitting over the bolt head will serve two purposes: stop the abrasion and immobilize the pipe. In that case the massive loss of fluid is eliminated because the pipe is locked in even if the clip fails. I like doing my own work because I get experience, knowledge, and observations about the car's construction. By all means I certainly agree that most owners should support the efforts by vendors to provide services.

 

[Viper2003]

Having the same issue on my 04.

Found out that their are two O rings on the fitting that attaches to the top of the power steering pump, one that is visible at the bottom of the fitting (after you unscrew it) and one that is just barely visible inside the top of the fitting. I first changed the bottom O ring and it helped, but did not solve the slight drip. My hose is a bit loose in the pump when tightened too. This seems to be the "tell" and is a result of the top O ring failing.

FYI, their is a special tool, part #81036a44, that is used to remove the fitting from the line and it appears that if the line is in good condtion, you can simply take the fitting off of the line, install new O rings and re-install the line. I haven't tried this yet but will soon.

Before I learned of this, I ordered the new hose (ouch $$$$) and as above, it came with only one fitting, ARGH! Soooo, I'm now waiting on the second fitting and the special tool.

Good luck,

Dan

I was reviewing your post for the same issue I'm having with my 2003 Viper. You mention a "special tool, part #81036a44", where can I find this tool? Who makes it? Any special instructions using it?

Thank you for any help you can offer.

 

[Dan Cragin]

I have had numerous issues with the replacement line fitting being defective. The hose pops out under high pressure, usually when hot at full crank. Dodge wont listen to my complaint and just keeps sending bad fittings. I have had to pay for 4 flatbed tows so far. Dan Lesser has the correct fittings, or you could go aftermarket. Beware.

 

[AZTVR]

Dan Lesser has the correct fittings,

For the new guy, Dan Lesser is "Viper Specialty", posting above.

_________________________________________________
Jim – ‘02 GTS ACR gray/silver -- sold – ( enthusiastic custodian for 8 years )

 

[Viper Specialty]

For the new guy, Dan Lesser is "Viper Specialty", posting above.

Thanks for the catch- but I think you inadvertently linked a YouTube video to my username, haha.

 

[Viper Specialty]

I was reviewing your post for the same issue I'm having with my 2003 Viper. You mention a "special tool, part #81036a44", where can I find this tool? Who makes it? Any special instructions using it?

Thank you for any help you can offer.

There is no special tool for the fitting removal. The tool that I suspect Viper X is referring to is the Oil Cooler Line disconnect tool, which wont help you here. The PS lines are blind-lock type, and require machining to remove without chancing any damage to the line itself or the original locks, which are needed to be saved out of the old fittings. Then, you need a special tool to R&R the lock in the new fitting.

All in all, this is not a job for an end user... you risk damaging the locks and/or line and being pretty much screwed.

 

[ViperJeff]

Thanks for the catch- but I think you inadvertently linked a YouTube video to my username, haha.

Took care of that

 

[AZTVR]

Thanks for the catch- but I think you inadvertently linked a YouTube video to my username, haha.

oops.

 

[Viper2003]

Thank you for the replies.