Okay, over the break I had my car jacked up on the front right side only, and it was up for maybe 48 hours while I did a little rust repair on that fender. I had a puddle of oil under my car on the left side of the engine that was probably 18"x18". I was positive that it was engine oil, and thought it had something to do with the recent engine re-build. I topped it off. I had never had any leak problems since the re-build, maybe a drop here, or there.

I pull it out of the garage to take it for a spin yesterday, and now my steering is creaking, and I'm concerned that I may have leaked PS fluid instead of engine oil. The creaking doesn't sound mechanical, but hyrolic. I can't describe it, it's only a sound I hear with steering. In my SUV, when I have the steering wheel turned full, or close to it, I hear it, and it's no big deal.

What do you think? The leaky oil is brownish yellowish, you know, like oil is supposed to look like. Does PS fluid come in any other color than red?

 

If it was oil, and you had been running the engine, wouldn't it drip black? I think it's PS fluid

 

I know tranny fluid comes in red but i've never seen red ps fluid. Ive only seen green and clear.

 

green and clear Power steering fluid??

Trans fluid and power steering fluid are about the same thing and both should be red (you can always pull the trans dipstick and see exactly what it looks like......for the PS you can dip the end of a paper towel in it and observe the color)

Next dip the end of the paper towel in the oil on the ground and see if it matches the other two.

Engine oil can appear red depending on the age and if its synthetic or not.

Gun

 

Pretty simple, check the fluidlevel in the p.s. pump........

 

lol, ::smacks head::

 

69thunder, my head hurts!

Stupid questions, I know, but I'm at work right now. I just had my wife check the fluid level (cold only), but mostly to see the color. It only left a tiny bit on the dipstick, and appeared to be brown. That's why I was wondering if you could get in anything but red. I'm sure I'll be able to answer all my questions when I get home regarding a leak and/or power steering, but the color thing is driving me crazy.

 

That fluid usually starts out red and due to heat and age will turn brown. If it is dark brown to almost black I would say it is engine oil. My old 72 Ford had pretty dark brown fluid in the powersteering. It gets hot just like any other hydraulic fluid. Fill the reservoir and I bet the noise goes away. It could be the belt as well, check tension.

 

i've never had a PS fluid leak, and you only jacked one side of the car up im gonna bet its oil esp due to the size you stated, but to be safe if you wanted to you could flush the PS and re fill to clean it out, that might help with the creaking.

 

PS fluid should be red unless its old. Ifthe PSstarted creaking after you had itup I'd bet its PS fluid.It could have leaked somewhere due to a line getting pressure put on it from being jacked up on one side. Refill and put it back up to check where its leaking from.