Re: E30 -- Yet a third(?) steering rack question

["Mike Theuri" <mikesoft@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jason, 

I'm a little curious about the pipe that you fixed which managed
to stop the leak. I would appreciate if you could describe its 
location, color, size since my car which is an '86 325 seems to 
have the same symptoms as yours. At the moment I have a 
small black pipe about 1/4 of an inch in diameter that seems to 
be loose, and which seems to run somewhere where the steering
column meets the rubber joint. I haven't been able to have a 
chance to look under properly to see where it goes so your 
information would be a great help.

I haven't checked if the fluid has made its way into my rubber
boot, it probably has and I will be having the mech check it
out soon. I'm not that proficient at the mechanics of the 
steering system but I would believe that the ATF would affect the
grease thats supposed to surround the ball joints and this would 
eventually lead to friction  and this might explain why your ball 
joint went  bad. Also the fluid might corrode the rubber boot but 
I may be wrong on that one. It definitely is a good thing to have 
everything checked out at once, have the ball joints checked as
well as the steering rack. Please let me know about the pipe and
thanks.

Mike 
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