C5 Tourer 2011 Power Steering Leak

[taximan61]

This seems to be a very common problem on the X7 C5's, in my opinion it is a design fault.

Anyway, my 2011 C5 Tourer with Hydractive 3 developed the dreaded leak. After taking blood pressure medication following the dealers quote I turned to this website. I am so pleased that I did. I noticed that a firm in Wakefield was mentioned a couple of times so I phoned them for a quote ( they are on Ebay as well ). Steering Services quoted £355 including fitting at their premises in Wakefield, I live in County Durham so it was a 200 mile round trip and a full day lost, I am a taxi driver so I need the car every day. Tried my usual garage who quoted about the same including labour, problem was that no local firm had an exchange rack on the shelf, I had to have mine removed and they would re-manufacture it in 2/3 days. That meant almost a week off the road, I opted for Wakefield. 

Arrived at their premises at 07.45 and they immediately got on with the job, after breakfast at a local cafe I went back and they already had the rack off and showed me the fault with the water ingress into the top seal and the very small perforations on an aluminium pipe, this pipe was an extra £100 but did need changing, dealer part only. The job progressed very well even though one of the arms was worn and had to be replaced, that was in with the price. The biggest problem was doing the tracking. My car has those 19 inch Arcadia wheels which a normal tracking gauge won't fit properly. They took the car to a local specialist for four wheel alignment, an extra £65 but well worth it. I had suspected that one of the rear wheels was out of line and it was, it was a long way out.

Finally left Wakefield at 4.45pm and the car drove really well, a noticeable difference in the feel of the steering.

I can highly recommend these people, very professional, very well organised and kept me in touch every so often to let me know what was happening. While I was waiting they took another booking for a C5 rack fitting and another arrived via courier to be worked on, they do at least 2 C5's a week.

Stan , Chester le street.

[paul.h]

Thanks for this topic, I will link to it on the Common Problems one about the leaking steering racks. This is the youngest one so far, most leaks have been on ones 2008 or 2009, so it looks as if Citroen have not bothered finding a fix.

[Parkesie]

I got my rack from acs power steering next day delivery as they try to keep racks in stock. I did it diy but for anyone else struggling to find a rack in stock quickly they are worth a try.

[taximan61]

The guys at Wakefield Steering Specialists recommend  moving the gaiter that lies near the pedals in the footwell and spraying some thick grease onto the seal and housing where the pinion enters the rack to prevent  the water ingress and subsequent damage to the seal.

Parkesie, thanks for the reply, I tried ACS ( Leicester if I recall ) but they didn't have one.

[paul.h]

Greasing the pinion has been suggested on here as a preventative measure for anyone with a C5 (X7) without waiting for the seal to fail since the pinion can rust. Parkesie has been kind enough to post a picture of the rust on his old steering rack and links can be found in this topic from the C5 Common Problems topic

 

25. New C5 (mark 3/X7) steering rack oil leaks - at least 8 cases so far.

We have 2 members jefflad and Howiec with steering rack leaks that are proving difficult to fix. Where the supply and return pipes join the rack, the seals are leaking fluid. It seems Citroen want to replace the pipes to fix this and that just replacing the O-ring seals does not work. Citroen also do not sell the seals separately. An additional 2 members, Parkesie and johnfing, have found a leak from the steering column shaft input seal on top of the steering rack, which initially was thought to be the pipe seals. This seal also is not available so replacement racks have been fitted. The column shaft has badly rusted so may be the cause of the leak - applying grease could possibly prevent this. See http://www.citroen-o...uid/#entry75684 . See also this topic for info on replacing the rack

http://www.citroen-o...ent/#entry81594

 

There are 2 more cases here and one being caused by corrosion of the rack where the alloy oil pipes connect http://www.citroen-o...-leaking-fluid/

 

Have a look at this topic from C5greener for another leak point in the piping near the rack http://www.citroen-o...-steering-leak/

 

This topic from taximan61 for his 2011 C5 (X7) had the leaking rack and pipes repaired in Wakefield. This is the youngest C5 with a leaking rack so it is not just the early ones that leak. http://www.citroen-o...-steering-leak/