Checkmate

I don't know what's going on. When I bought the truck a month ago I noticed power steering fluid on the side of the engine. I asked the guy if it leaks. He told me that somehow he had lost the cap to it and it leaked out, but he put a new one on and I looked and yes, the cap was there. I drove the truck home and a few days later while showing the engine to a buddy noticed the power steering cap was gone. I ordered another one and when it came in I put it on and made sure it was on good. Today I went to check the oil and there was my cap sitting on top of the radiator on the passenger side !! I don't get it ? How the hell can this be happening ?

MikeyB

EB290 just had the same issue. Bad hydroboost caused the problem.

MikeyB

BigBlue

It's little green men causing it.

eb290

The hydroboost is the first thing I would change. I changed the rack and pinion $900+ at Dodge tech services advice, no luck. After changing the hydroboost and pump the problem seems to be solved. This is the third pump on my truck. I would bet that there is something floating around in the hydroboost that blocks a port after a while and causes a build-up of pressure in the pump which kicks back and blows the cap off. I had the problem for almost 200k miles before it was fixed. I don't know how you can convince a dealer of that and get it fixed under warranty. If your truck is like mine you have to drive it a while before it happened. It was so bad I drilled a hole in the side of the cap and tied a string to it to keep from losing the cap, think I went through 6 or 8 before I did that. Don't use plastic zip ties and wrap it to keep it on, I did that and it blew the reserviour off the pump. It builds up a lot of pressure. It cost me about $384 for the hydroboost and another $185 for the labor, I'm looking at the invoice right now. Like I said, good luck on getting a dealer to do it under warranty.

Checkmate

Warranty is not an issue since I have 136,000 miles on the truck. I am afraid to open the hood to see if the dasmn cap is gone again. I almost used duct tape on it temporarily when the dealer ordered the wrong one the first time.

eb290

If warranty is not an issue, I would change the hydroboost. Like I posted, It will cost a little over $600 complete. Until then, drill about a 1/8" hole in the cap where you grip it and tie a string from it to the battery cable to keep from losing it. You can do a search on my posts and see what all I went through with the power steering problems I had. Good luck. (I would bet good money it is the hydroboost)

Checkmate

Well I opened the hood up again today only to find a missing cap once again. Do you know what the problem is with the hydroboost ? I mean the brakes work excellent. I wonder if I was to drill say a 1/16" hole in the middle of the cap if it would blow fluid out or just air. If it would just blow out air why couldn't I do that and forget about it til summer ? I just don't feel like throwing money at this right now when I have a transmission to fix on my 95 that is no cheap deal by any means.

eb290

Like I said, I believe that there is something that is floating around that gets hung up in the hydroboost and causes the pump to just churn in the fluid until it get so hot it kicks back. I don't believe a 1/16 would do you any good, just my opinion.