Last night I tackled the power steering hoses. First proper job in the car I suppose, much of this is notation for myself so apologies if it’s long winded and boring. I bumped it up on some ramps/blocks to give me a bit of space underneath and lift the car higher to work on. It’s pretty tight in the garage with the cars width. Anyway.
Battery out and engine covers removed. Found the pcv pipe from the throttle to valve cover on the passenger side was very loose. Closer inspection an it is split and the end, I fitted a hose clamp and banked this in the to do pile.
The serpentine belt. The automatic tension is a dream and this was quickly removed. Then the alternator was removed, and the intake. I considered getting the rad out but chose not too. The power steering fluid pot comes out nice and easy, two bolts and clip on the feed pipe to the pump. The lower two bolts however are a 1/8th of a turn shuffle out, not much fun. This allowed clear access to the bolts on top the rack. I unbolted the high pressure line from the rack and threaded it all out. I had found a tutorial of a C5 and they suggested unbolting the line from the pump, I don’t think that possible on a C6 with the ABS right in the way. Then it was on to the lower pressure line. A pesky 10mm bolt had to be done from below. I then cleaned up the mess with hand towels, it would appear that I have aftermarket engine mounts, some type of polybush configuration.
Comparing the new lines to old it was obvious that firstly, I had the early style short high pressure hose and secondly that I needed to transpose the clips from the original. Reassembly the reverse of removal, the low pressure line was refitted. This goes on some rather convoluted route across the front cross member that I can only assume is for cooling aid. The high pressure line, I fitted this to the pump on the bench then took it over and had to work out the routing, which is different to what I removed, some Google image searching etc and we were in. Then the worst part, getting that hose connected to the rack again. I had it on and off the car a few times, it just didn’t sit right, eventually like all these things it simply went in like the fuss had been for nothing. Cup of tea and time to reassemble everything. I found an unattached PCV vent port.

Everything is now back together and filled up with fluids. I didn’t start her up as it was 11pm by now. Il check over my work, ensure nothing is catching etc and bleed the rack. I really hope that’s done, I have no desire to go back down there in a hurry. It’s clear though that the PCV system on the car is the area to hit if the fluid loss is resolved.