Steering issues on the Audi TT 8N

One day driving the Audi I noticed that power steering had gone out of a sudden. Checking the reservoir showed it was practically empty. I tried to fill it, but when starting the vehicle, all of the fluid came out from the bottom. Specifically, the leak was on the power steering rack, on the left side of the vehicle.

A quick googling indicated that it is not entirely uncommon for the power steering rack to fail on these vehicles. While it is technically possible to rebuild the rack, this appeared perhaps a task beyond my capability. A rebuilt rack cost was easily available fortunately. For the most part, replacement parts are easy to find for the Audi TT.

In order for the rack to come off, you need to remove the subframe under the engine. This is attached with only a few bolts but is somewhat heavy so can be difficult to remove when working alone.

One tie rod and was stuck so badly that I ended up cutting the bolt with the cutoff wheel. Also, on trying to reuse the bolts that attach the steering rack to the subframe, I managed to break one. This was fun to remove.

A new rebuilt steering rack cost some 400 euros from Trodo, new bolts for the subframe some 50 euros, plus a little something for fluid and finally alignment. All good again, for a while at least.