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Any one who drives these cars hard will know that the power steering reservoir cap is a terrible design. The rubber oring has a tendency to leak, but even when thats fixed, theres an exposed vent hole in the cap. This cap does not have any sort of valve so the power steering fluid is effectively exposed to the air.
This results in the power steering sloshing out under hard driving, and makes a mess of the surrounding components.
People try and remedy this with:
- Different style cap (don't like this option as it has no pressure relief)
- Putting a sock over the reservoir to absorb the fluid (Doesn't fix the problem and doesn't pass scrutineering at racetracks anymore as it is a fire hazard)
- Retrofitting the servotronic PS reservoir (don't think this has a pressure relief either)
- Secondary overflow bottle (Hard to get a clean result, but easily removable when not tracking the car and is relatively cheap)
I ended up opting for the overflow bottle route.
I found a nice looking brake fluid reservoir that can be used for this application. The nipple on the reservoir was too large for the hose I intended to use, so that had to be cut off and I screwed in a small brass nipple on the end. I purchased a spare reservoir cap and stuck in a 3.5mm 90 degree plastic barb into it. This routes the vent to the bottle via a 3.5mm silicone hose.
Mounting the bottle was a bit tricky. Luckily theres an M6 bolt holding the power steering reservoir to the bracket, so I can use that has a point of attachment
I had some spare N54 valve cover ground posts (which happen to be M6) so I shortened one and machined it on my lathe, then used an M6 die to cut a thread to mount the new overflow bottle on.
The only annoyance is when the cap is fully screwed down, the vent hole is an awkward position for the hose to reach. I think my original cap had it in a more favourable position so might end up using that instead.
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