1990 si 4ws leak issue plz help - Honda Prelude Forum

doyler89 · 05-19-2011, 08:01 AM

Hi all,
I have just bought a 1990 prelude si 4ws 2 days ago and I am having trouble already with a leak. yesterday it was just a couple of drops on the ground of what looked like black thick oil. Today I was checking over the car and all the fluid levels and removed the power steering resevoir cap and it looked a little low. I went out driving for a while and when I came back and parked up in the garage there was a big pool of light brown fluid on the ground its dripping of the plastic shield underneath the car. I dont know if its an oil leak or power steering the right side of the engine has fluid or oil on it too and underneath the hood also has fluid or oil on it. The underneath of the sump or oil pan looks wet and has a drop hanging from it. Also when on full lock to the left sometimes the power steering fails. can anyone help.

Thanks

Colfax · 05-19-2011, 09:00 AM

The easiest way for me to tell what is leaking is to smell the fluid. Engine oil, power steering fluid, coolant, and transmission fluid all have a unique smell. Unless you are using engine oil in your transmission (which is perfectly acceptable in 5 speed 3rd gens), then it will smell like engine oil, lol.

The fact that it's on the under side of your hood tells me it's probably the power steering pump. Specifically the front seal. They are simple to replace. Here is a link to a write up for replacing the seal...

Leaking Power Steering Pump/Line of Fluid Under Hood

The seal you need is #31 in this link...
Part Detail

doyler89 · 05-20-2011, 02:05 AM

The pools of fluid just continue to grow on the ground. The fluid is a real yellow colour and its kind of odourless to my nose. The fluid in the resovoir is also yellow so im lead to believe its power steering fluid I just have no clue where its coming from. The resovoir is well below minimum now and my steering is getting really heavy at times. The belt is flinging little bubbles up in the air which i presume is making the mess every where the complete right hand side of the engine block is wet . The reovoir also has foamy bubbles in it when I open it up after running the car.

Colfax · 05-20-2011, 08:34 AM

I told you in my last post where the most likely place is that it's leaking from... The front seal on the power steering pump.

Unfortunately, you're the one that's going to have to fix the thing. It's very common for that seal to go bad and start leaking. Replace the seal and see if that fixes it. The seal costs less than $5 plus shipping (unless you buy one from the dealer). It should take you less than 30 minutes to replace it. I can do it in 5 minutes.

Power steering fluid can only leak from three places...the pump, the reservoir, or the hoses. You are going to have to figure it out because there's really nothing we can do from this end. This means you'll either have to pay someone to look at it or you're gonna have to get your hands dirty. I'm suspecting the front seal because it's getting onto the belt. The only other thing that's even close to the belt is the reservoir, so you should look at that too to see if you can see any leaks. It has an upper and lower hose going to it.

psychoboy · 05-27-2011, 06:45 AM

3rd gens are bad about pulling air into the system thru the hose that runs over the exhaust manifold. eventually, that air burps the reservoir, and you get fluid all over everywhere.