While turning onto my street last night, I heard a pop and noticed the steering started to feel heavy turning into my driveway. It was dark so I couldn't see anything, but did hear what sounded like some type of fluid leaking out.

Fast forward to this morning, and the Jeep is sitting in a pool of bright red fluid. After a bit of digging around I was able to find the leak in the power steering line - Looks to be the one that runs right above the crossmember that sits behind the front swaybar. I tried cleaning it up and found a decent size hole in the line, along with some corrosion on it.

I checked, and it seems that the parts aren't that expensive, but how bad is the install? Is it something I can do in my driveway? I haven't been able to find any write-ups on changing the lines on a KK, but there are a ton of them on the KJ. Were there any significant changes?

If it's that much of a pain and I do need to take it to a shop, is there a way to do a temporary fix so that I can drive there?

You can drive with no power steering. It's gonna be hard to steer(part of the reason why old cars had huge steering wheels), unless you're moving.

The big problem is burning up the power steering pump which can be an added expense. I don't know how much they go for. You can probably add fluid as it leaks, but that also depends on how bad the leak is.

Hopefully TJKJ will see this and give his He's the pro.

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2011 Deep Cherry Red KK - Skyslider - JBA/Bilstein Adjust-A-Strut set at 3.5" - OME 731 Rear Springs - Bilstein Rear Shocks - Al's A-arms - 245/75-16 Duratracs - Rock Liazard Super Sliders

Yep, my concern with driving it isn't so much steering as it is blowing up the pump. As it sits, there's a good steady spray of fluid out the line, almost straight down onto the ground. I doubt it would make it very far before running out. Plus, if possible I'd like to avoid dumping fluids all over the road.

It looks pretty easy to do in your driveway. You just unhook the fittings at the pump and steering gear and the two bolts on the crossmember that hold it on. Service manual says you need to remove airbox, fan shroud, and coolant/washer bottle, but you might be able to snake around all that.

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2008 Liberty Sport
OME Lift, JBA A-Arms + Track Bar
245/75/16 Nokian Rotiiva AT Plus
Numerous junkyard upgrades

Glad to hear that it happened close to home and not during a high speed turn or some other critical time!

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2011 KK 4x4 Sport
- Green Pearl
- Mopar Skid Plates
- Blacked-out Headlights

Thanks, I ordered the part from Autozone, $35 + shipping. I'll give it a go and update with pics later this week once everything is installed.

Ok, so I got the new line shipped out quickly. This concludes the good news....

Upon further review, it is correct that you need to remove the airbox, battery, the combined washer fluid / coolant reservoirs, and the fan shroud.

I took a bunch of pics which I'll update later. In short, the broken line wasn't the "power steering pressure line", but rather it was one of the metal lines that is considered part of the "steering rack".



In the pic above, you can see the entire rack. My bad hose is the one that goes to the passenger side - I figure I'll just replace both to be safe, along with the new pressure line that I already have. There is nothing wrong with the steering rack itself, nor do I have any desire to remove & replace it. The issue is, you can't order just the hose by itself, you need order the entire rack. This works out to $500 thru the dealer (ha!), or best case about $230 w/ a $50 core for a remanufactured unit.

Is there any other place that I could possibly source this part? It seems pretty wasteful to order the entire rack if I only need the lines.

Look for KA/KKs in the local junkyards. You might be able to get the rack for a lot less. If there is a core on that, just swap the lines over and take the junkyard part back with the bad line.

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2008 Liberty Sport
OME Lift, JBA A-Arms + Track Bar
245/75/16 Nokian Rotiiva AT Plus
Numerous junkyard upgrades

I was hoping for your sake it was not that tube.
Unfortunately, it is too common to have it rot out.
There was a KA owner with the same problem. He tried multiple times to "repair" the tube with splices and such, to no avail. He even works at a hydraulic pipe company. Which of course did not have the correct swedge/rotary die to allow him to make one. At a cost of $599.99 for a single use, his company would not go for it... Too bad really, he could have made a bunch and sold them to folks like you and many more I'm sure.

Problem with a used one is that it may already be half rotted out, and a new one is still prone to rotting out. But when you look at it, a new rack with a new tube, should (active word is should) last longer.

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07 KA Light Khaki, Manual trany.
2.5" Adjust-A-Strut JBA lift, Euro taillights,
Home made; Front Tilt Hood, Roof Rack, RAM Air, & CAI.
ESP Off Switch
Take a ride on the Trō side!