Hi Guys,

I have noticed my car is dropping oil near my front mud flaps, upon further inspection i noticed the control arms etc has a lot of oil on it and its basically dripping down and leaking from the under carriage. With my limited knowledge i was able to gather it is power steering fluid because eventually the level went down so low that the pump started to whine lol. My car had just been sent in for an engine overhaul and its been a month now since I have been driving it, the weird thing is before any of this i never had to bother about power steering issues or ever refilling the system meaning it didnt have a leak. I also, for the life of me, cant remember what colour the fluid was but i do know it supposed to be VW Hydraulic fluid which is green.

Question is.. If the guys at the workshop performed an overhaul removing the block etc.. That does mean they would have to fill in new Power Steering fluid correct? Because right now shes leaking red and i am trying to gather if they filled the incorrect fluid, atf etc..

Please assist..

If they Removed the pipes and left the Power steering pump on the motor yes.
If they Removed the Powersteering pump and left it all conected No. (hard and can bend or break some pipes,which leads to oil leaks)

Red is atf which is incorrect.

Thanks guys, she ran for many years with no PS problems, do you think this ATF can eat the seals etc within a month? Just a broad question i guess, will still have to get it checked asap.

It is but also let them check that all the pipes are tight.

I just bought a 96 jetta and am having the exact same issue. The clutch was done just before I bought the car so it would make sense that they could have bumped or broken something. I saw it was leaking right by the bottle outlet so sorted that out but something is still dripping a lot.

What is the best way to inspect for further leaks? Lift the car and check everything individually or what? I'm not very familiar with the power steering system. Also I didn't know there were different coloured fluids. I think I might have topped up with the red one now.

It's not about the colour, it is the wrong specification and the wrong oil.
Atf is automatic tramsmission fluid and vw pumps and racks do not use that. They need hydraulic fluid.
So drain it all by undoing a pipe at the rack. Then without starting the car turn the wheel a number of times left and right.
Put the line back and tighten.
Then undo the return line from the rack to the bottle , block it on the bottle side And fill the bottle. Put something under the return line to catch fluid.
Wait for it to start running out while topping up the bottle. Now briefly start the car and watch the fluid from the return line. Keep topping up the bottle till that red fluid is gone. Stop engine and put return line back on the bottle. Top up to level. Move the rack full left right till it goes quiet
You might have to do this more than once to get rid of the atf.

I once used atf on my 9n3, chowed the seals within a month!

Have a similar issue on my csl,however the leak is clearly on the rhs rack seal as the bottom part of my dust boot being wet gave it away.

Do i replace the ps rack now,definitely not 2 expensise at this stage labour not even included.

My possible solution to this is replacing it with a manual rack from goldwagen but where to find the manual rack ujoint as the seem to differ between ps and manual rack.

Also came accross something called a loop kit on the internet now.Question is,is this safe to do even with or without a leak onthe rack seals itself,has anyone ever done this that can advice me abit more on this.

Any advice please.

To even have my ps rack overhauled at a workshop is gonna be at least 2.8k at least up to 3.7k almost, a new ps rack 4k upwards.

Already leaked to the point that my ps pump started to whine and my ps fluid reservoir being empty with foaming at the bottom of the reservoir.