Hi everyone,

Just bought a '98 4x4 that has a small tear in what I'm guessing is the rack and pinion boot/bellow. There is a small amount of light brown fluid dripping from the spot but steering seems fine.

1) how quickly do I need to repair this?
2) is there a way to tell if I can just repair the boot?

Thanks so much!

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The boot just covers the inner tie rod, so repairing it won’t stop a leak. The leak is probably coming from the seals inside the rack, which is common.

I’d say search the forums for how to flush your power steering fluid and go ahead and do that and clean your filter. Maybe there’s some stopleak you can try putting in, I don’t know never used any myself.

Then just monitor the leak, you can drive for years with it leaking. The only problem is it does wash out the grease for the inner tie rod, which over time can cause it to loosen up and make your steering sloppy.

It’s definitely not life or death, eventually you’ll probably want to get a new steering rack which is about a $500 part if you buy OEM and most of the day to change it if you’re running new lines like I did.


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Agree with everything John said. If the Dexron-3 equivalent ATF is brown, it's long overdue for a change. It's supposed to be a cheerful pale red color. Easy job, many how-tos on here, easy to figure out. Cleaning the screen in the bottom of the reservoir is pretty easy also.

Thank you both very much! Happy to see how alive this forum is.