My Daughters Ford Ka has just failed its MOT due to corrosion on the power steering pipes. According to the guy in the garage this was going to cost in excess of £500 to repair so we would be looking to scrap the car. Does any one know of anywhere we can get the parts or get it fixed locally? It seems such a shameto scrap a reasonable car for something that is common

Steve

Hello ?

Depends which pipes have failed.

It also depends how hard they are to get to.

Id get a second opinion, and maybe consider swapping the pipes / rack (if they are on the rack) with good used ones from a local scrap yard.

Thats good, usually they fail on vast amounts of welding, ford should be ashamed.
That quotes too high by the way.


Come to think of it I'm no mot inspector but I'm pretty darn sure they shouldn't fail unless they are leaking fluid.

Clean them up with a wire brush, spray them and take it to another mot station.
If they're rubber and cracked its another story as then they are waiting to burst which is a danger to motorcycles and other road users.
Slippery stuff is that.
If that's the case contact rapid, mention you seen the ad on here, he did me a good deal with the high pressure hoses he made for my gsi, better quality than the vauxhall ones too.

Clicky

When I had a Fiesta, which I rear ended someone, because of where the power sterring pipes where located, one of them was damaged in the crash.
I tried loads of ways to fix it.
I stupily tried rubber gas pipe jubilee clipped on, that lasted all of 5 seconds, the pipe just burst.

I eventually cut out damaged section, and used small bore copper pipe with 2 compression fittings, and this worked perfect, it cost me about £6 for a perment fix.

i used to have a ka (52 plate) and it never failed it's MOT but there's a scrapyard at the industrial buildings at the bottom of leasowe road, opposite where cadbury's used to be. he's very reasonable with prices.

That scrap yard has gone now, its next to neptune on cleverland street.

Spot on Ste power steering pipes dont fail on corrosion unless they are actualy leaking but that does not mean that the car is safe to use !!!!!!!!!!

It's a ka, they weren't safe from the minute they left the production line

Doesn't have to be leaking to fail, corroded pipes can possibly come under two separate fails ....

2.2.c Steering System - Static Inspection

"a component fractured, or cracked, damaged, excessively corroded or deformed so that it is unserviceable"

2.3 Power Steering

" a fluid pipe excessively damaged, or fouling other parts of the vehicle"

2.2.c question. at what point does it become unservicable ? A when it does not work ? as far as i am aware you cant fail something on what might happen

the pipes on the power steering rack are simple to change an being a ka their is loads in the scrappy,s try neptunes on cleveland street i bet they cost about a tenner and half hour to change mail me if you have probs but dont pay 500 to have em done should cost about 50 labour included if you cant do it yourself the pipes unbolt off the rack

can fail if pitted. And not very easy to change pain in the arse trust me done loads of them easy way to do them is cut 2 slices in slam panel fold over and take pipe out put new in and fold back 0151 647 7791 wirral car salvage they got 2 in and cheapest on that road

Thanks Guys - makes me feel a bit better. I have a ordered the part from a breakers on line and I'll have a go at changing them myself - used to work on cars when I was younger and had no money so should be ok ;-)

Steve

Is this the easier way of changing them - where is the slam panel? Excuse my ignorance just not familiar with the term

Thanks for the help

Steve

Lol, its a bit vague isn't it, I thought the unserviceable was only tied to the deformed, the rest of the entities being a list of possible reasons for failure at the examiners discretion.

Its like the brake pipes where the examiner is supposed to be able to see the depth of the pipe walls (something like 30% depth of pitting that's permitted).

Good luck pal, these are a right pain in the arse to work on

its the bit behind the bumper.
If you want a hand changing the pipes, gis a shout, I wont charge, its a hobby of mine working on cars.

All very grey areas mot testers are suposed to have xray vision didn,t you know that.!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol.
but corrosion in general is very difficult to judge as i said when does an item become unservicable ?

Willo
Thanks for the offer I may give take you up on that offer - thanks to everyone again

Steve

Just pm me if you need a hand.

Ok - got new set of power steering pipes. Had a good look and the one that needs replacing is the pipe from the pump under the radiator to the union that unscrews on the passenger side. The pipe from this union to the rack is not so bad and has cleaned up OK. Got the old one off using the trick of cutting the slam panel - worked a treat - so thanks for that.
Problem I have now is that is that the union on the new pipe is rusted solid so I will end up snapping the pipe - tried everything, heat, penetrating oil etc - won't budge. Can the pipe be joined to the old one without freeing the union ie turning the whole pipe or should I go back to the scrappy and see if I can get another? I'm not hopefull that another would be any different.
Would it be worth assembling the new pipe from the pump to the steering rack and seeing if I can get that in?

Steve

I would not join it, there is a lot of pressure in that pipe, and unless its done properly, it will fail, and could cause an accident to you or someone else.