Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Rack and Pinion Power Steering leak seems to be alleviated by Mineral Oil softener stop leak: 2nd successful test run

 but most leaks are caused by Teflon Valves drying up, thereby allowing fluid to slowly seep out (usually after you've had the car for awhile). This will refresh valves, create good seal on power steering fluid container.
Stop leak has teflon in it to help reseal pitted walls and seal areas
 Yep pretty useless unless your vehicle is a classic that uses NBR seals [Nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR), in short nitrile rubber,] . Most seals are piston ring type made of delrin or vespel totally unaffected by the chemicals that make old synthetic rubber seals swell
While NBR is still the most widely used material for power steering seals, in many cases HNBR is replacing
So the car cooled down for a couple hours - and no leaking - no dripping out of the CV axle boot - and no fluid build up. I did wipe a bit of fluid near the back of the frame. So if the leak is on the hose - then it must be the low pressure hose and it's a very slow leak.
Its a special seal (part #26080380) that has a plastic/metal ring with a rubber seal attached to it.
But definitely LESS fluid on the frame then this morning - and it did not leak after the previous test run - so that means this is the second successful test run!

Even if there is still a leak - it's too slow to justify replacing the whole rack and pinion power steering system - that would be a least $1000. We will have the mechanic look at it tomorrow - to see if he can determine where the leak is precisely.
Yikes...The end seals on my rack and pinion stopped leaking after just a week with this stuff. I am stunned. I believe the steering is also smoother lock to lock on my 1984 Volvo 240 wagon. Very happy once again with Lucas oil products.
So I'll take it for another test run this evening - and then bring it in to the shop in the am - without cleaning off the frame at all. And maybe he can track the precise source of the leak.
The rubber seals on the rack started to leak on the low pressure side. One half bottle of this completely stopped the leak. Lucas says this fix is permanent as long as I maintain a 50/50 mix of their product with Honda power steering fluid.
I'm still thinking it must be the end seal inside the boot since otherwise the leaking fluid should drip off the hose onto the garage floor - and so far no dripping!!

So I'm definitely NOT gonna try the BlueDevil since that stuff can destroy the rack and pinion power steering system - if it dissolves the old o rings or seals - since it is definitely a Solvent that also acts as a rubber "swelling softener agent."

The use of oils and liquid softeners to assist in the mastication and processing of rubber or to produce softer vulcanized stocks has been standard practice since the early commercial use of rubber. More recently certain synthetic rubbers, polymerized under special conditions, have been treated with rather large amounts of mineral oils, with a resulting decrease in the cost of the rubber and apparently with no unfavorable effect on the rubber in most instances.
https://meridian.allenpress.com/rct/article-abstract/26/1/152/87381/The-Effect-of-Softeners-in-Rubber?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Right so...

No Unfavorable Effect! That's what I like to see.

https://sci-hub.tw/10.5254/1.3539790



so....




Wow - so that's what the BlueDevil does - it creates low tensile strength... oops...

Wow - it's REALLY lowered while the mineral oil doesn't lower it hardly at all! Amazing.




so that's mineral oil:

And here's a similar chemical as BlueDevil:





Wow - Tensile Strength reduced to maybe 20% of what it was? No wonder people have their power steering destroyed sometimes....

The Effect of Softeners in Rubber

Rubber Chemistry and Technology (1953) 26 (1): 152–155.






















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