Porsche Cayman S Power Steering Leak

Had my buddy Ken drop his Cayman off at the shop this last week for a power steering groan and oil leak. Turns out the leak was coming from the power steering system on top of the motor, causing the pump to go dry and create the groaning sound.

A few know the story of this little guy…..

So the pump is easily found behind the front access panel, the problem is, you need to pull the driver side intake manifold to change the pump out on the cayman.

Underneath the plenum is the pump. Then the driver side intake comes off so you can move the AC compressor out of the way. On the 911, you can just swing the compressor out over the bumper, but that is no possible with the mid engine cars.

As you can see, there is a lot of Pentosin on top of the motor. The line appeared like it was leaking, and the pump was soaked too, so I decided to replace it all, as this is not a fun job to have to do twice if we guessed wrong. This is a solid 5-6 hour job working at a good pace, so you don’t want to have to do it twice.

It is hard to see, but on the bottom of the power steering return line, the metal is nicked. This metal end slides into the quick release plastic fitting on the reservoir, so a nick in that can cause a leak, and likely damage the reservoir fitting since it is just soft plastic. This cayman has had a few motor in motor out issues, so my guess is a tech nicked the line during removal. These lines can sometimes be a real bear to get out, so I can see how it would easily happen.

And the new pump, new reservoir, and line installed.

And everything back together. My advice since this is not a fun job, if you have to go in there for any reason, plan on doing it all, it only adds a few hundred in parts, but after you see how much work it is to replace the pump, you will gladly spend that extra money to make sure everything is new.