Steering fluid overflow... please, help!

[José V. Gavilá]

Hello!

I am in the Pyrenees, in a very nice Hotel (in Les, Lleida, Spain). Well, today, after a trip in the mountains, by very nice roads with lots of curves, I have checked the engine and have found that steering fluid had overflown (about 50-100cc or so, I guess)... I have checked after about 45 minutes since I have stopped the car. It was of course over the HIGH level mark in that moment... I have not noticed anything wrong with the steering before nor after that finding.

I wonder if level should be checked in COLD or in HOT (or, at least, with engine running), as it could be I overfilled it, checking it in COLD. Please, could somebody help on this?

This is my first long trip with my Espace V6 24V after the expensive engine works and we have done about 700km so far without any other problem (and with an average consumption of 10.7 l / 100km, with 2 adults, 4 children and luggage for 10 days which I find good enough)

I will try to check the forum again tonight, as this is a public PC in the Hotel. I would appreciate your help, as this is my second day here and I would like to drive lots more in the coming days!

Thanks for your help!

Regards from a very nice place 

JOSE

[Anders Dinsen]

Hi José

Ours was olverflowing too some time ago, I sucked off fluid until it was at the high mark, and it has kept itself totally clean since that.

Everything expands a bit in the hot, and the reservoir is there to absorb the expansion. I will assume that the correct way of checking the level is when the system is cold, but 45 minutes should be enough.

While there's a very high oil pressure in the hose from the pump to the steering rack, the rest of the system (including th reservoir) has little or no pressure at all, so you don't risk anything by removing the lid with a warm engine. Unlike the cooling system, which you should never touch until it has cooled down considerably!

If you don't have a useable pump at hand, I would just leave it as-is. It doesn't look good, but there is no real problem as long as the level doesn't drop below the MIN mark.

Have a very nice vacation!

Best wishes,
Anders

[José V. Gavilá]

Hi Anders,

Hi José

Ours was olverflowing too some time ago, I sucked off fluid until it was at the high mark, and it has kept itself totally clean since that.

Everything expands a bit in the hot, and the reservoir is there to absorb the expansion. I will assume that the correct way of checking the level is when the system is cold, but 45 minutes should be enough.

While there's a very high oil pressure in the hose from the pump to the steering rack, the rest of the system (including th reservoir) has little or no pressure at all, so you don't risk anything by removing the lid with a warm engine. Unlike the cooling system, which you should never touch until it has cooled down considerably!

If you don't have a useable pump at hand, I would just leave it as-is. It doesn't look good, but there is no real problem as long as the level doesn't drop below the MIN mark.

Have a very nice vacation!

Best wishes,
Anders

Thanks for your message!. I have read it today in the morning and have driven about 100km without any problem . I have checked fluid before leaving and, yes, it was very high, as it was yesterday. I still don't know when it was overfilled (perhaps at Renault, in last service?) but, anyway, steering works perfectly fine and there is no sign of other problems. So I will try to get out a bit of fluid, to MAX mark and, just in case, will buy an steering fluid bottle.

I will let you know what happens 

Best regards,

JOSE

[José V. Gavilá]

Hello!

Well, just a short update before I go back home tomorrow... I have checked steering fluid again and it is in same level (i.e. over HIGH) than last time. There has been no more leakage/overflow in last days , with lots of mountain roads and so steering work. So it seems just a case of overflowing and, trust me, I think it was the Renault garage 

All in all, I am happy so far with the 1200+ km done in a week. Total trip will be about 2000km (update after arriving home: 1840km). Only remaining problem is the casual engine stall when passing from cold to warm, as I explained earlier and a (surely related) difficulty to start when warm/hot, whilst it is fine in cold. I will go for this problem over next weeks.

Regards,

JOSE