Possible power-steer leak after 3,000 miles? Nissan declines
 

Hi there,

I got a aftermarket cat back exhaust installed from my local mechanic and when he lifted the car up, we both noticed something that looks like a power steer rack leak (See image). I took it to Nissan today and they inspected it and said it wasn't leaking, and when I showed them the picture the guys said "That part gets sprayed with some sort of coating off the factory" etc... and didn't really make sense to me.

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1468364911

To all the tech people with the Z's what do you think? It doesn't drip, but the fact that it looks dirty like this I don't know what to think :icon14:

Clean it and if the crude comes back you have a leak. If it doesn't then you are golden.

^^ try cleaning it first. Cars do come from the factory with coating sprayed on them in certain areas.

The car came from Japan over on a boat. They spray them with a coating to protect them from the salt water. You won't see it on cars assembled in the USA. That does not look like a PS leak to me either.

ps fluid is kinda reddish in color. well, it is actually atf.

I recommend you just clean it off, keep an eye on your power steering fluid level, and periodically check the steering rack nut. In other words, do nothing.

I had the same exact issue on my car a few months ago at about 12,000 miles. My alignment guy pointed it out to me. I hadn't seen any evidence of leaks on my garage floor, but I did notice that the power steering level was slightly below COLD MAX.

The fine people at the dealership cleaned the steering rack nut and slightly overfilled my power steering reservoir (thanks). But they also made the mistake of tightening the steering rack nut. From what I've since learned, this is not supposed to be tightened. When I drove the car, I immediately noticed that the steering felt heavier and actually had better on-center feel, but the steering wheel would not recenter by itself during a turn. So if I turned right at a stop sign and let go of the wheel, the steering wheel would remain at the same angle, and the car would continue toward the curb if I took my hands off the wheel. I had to manually walk to wheel back to center during turns.

I brought the car back to the dealership the next day. I then asked them to mark the position of the steering rack nut and loosen the nut a quarter turn at a time, and I then test drove the car until it felt normal again, which was after three-quarters of a full turn.

Porsche ships their new cars with underside sprayed with a liquid cosmolene substance..looks like oil leak till it burns/wears off.