Is there a better solution?
https://www.bimmerworld.com/Suspensi...ing-Kit_2.html
I'm tired of the power steering fluid mess.
Is the mess usually caused by a leaking hose joint, or by churning oil coming out of the seep hole in the reservoir?
(I've already done the common replacement of the clamp on the end of the high pressure hose.)
Long story short....
https://www.chasebays.com/collection...nt=38356828617
Saw that kit.
- Couldn't tell if it could use the OEM cooler or not.
- If the magic is in the baffled reservoir, I can just buy the reservoir.
https://www.chasebays.com/products/c...21425802936398
Pretty sure you cannot use the OE cooler with the kit.
The OE power steering system leaks from everywhere. No magic about their reservoir. If you buy just the reservoir you're still in for the lines that connect up.
Last edited by E36forever; 01-18-2020 at 11:15 AM.
Hmmm...not sure I'd want to go without a cooler, and not sure I'm interested in a $420 solution. Ug.
Assuming 30 min sessions, track only. Is a cooler needed?
The cooler is nicely compact and IMO a much better solution vs OE. Money is always a concern so you have to weigh it out.
No idea which cooler is better or worse for cooling. In the end it's all about not leaking and staying that way for hopefully the time you own the car.
I’m gonna pick up a chase bays kit in a trade for a wing. I’ll let you know how it goes
I just installed a Chase Bays Kit with the optional cooler. Very Nicely put together and seems well thought out. I have not raced with it yet bit it seems like the overkill kind of solution I was looking for.
A nice solution would be some kind of heat exchanger with cooling fins that could be clamped around one tube run of the stock trombone 'cooler'.
Thinking about it, you could probably cut a couple of lengths of aluminum sheet, say 3 or 4 inches wide and whatever length works, then lightly form each of them around a bit of steel rod to make a partial longitudinal groove to accommodate one run of the stock trombone tube. You'd sandwich the stock tube between the two aluminum pieces, then use through bolts or pop rivets to clamp them in place around the tube. If you made the aluminum flanges wide enough to extend well past the fasteners, you could bend them apart like X-wings to further increase surface area exposed to airflow.
If you want to get a bit fancy with it, use some electronics thermal compound (e.g. Arctic Silver) between the tube and your aluminum heat sink to improve heat transfer.
Material cost would be negligible, plus an hour or two of your time.
Neil
Last edited by NeilM; 01-20-2020 at 10:16 AM.
we've been running 2 AN lines, pump to rack, to reservoir. No coolers, no issues. The OE lines are garbage unless you change them every few years.
Last edited by NeilM; 01-20-2020 at 12:37 PM.
So, lines 5 and 8 (arrows) you've replaced with custom AN lines, and line 1 (circled) you use the OEM line?
Screenshot_20200120_130852.jpeg
Yea, heat transfer is most efficient when the temperature delta is highest, so the best place to put a cooler is at the outlet of whatever is heating the fuild the most. I guess that's the steering rack, although I would have thought it could have been the pump.
Either way, another place to add more surface area would be to put some finned metal around one of the metal aftermarket reservoirs. Not ideal, but could be done cheap and likely plenty good enough.
Correct. On one car we used teflon -6 PS lines from aeroquip, and on another car a custom made hydraulic hose (way overkill ... rated for like 10k psi lol). We actually replaced #1 as well, but that's just a low pressure supply hose ... any good quality rubber hose rated for PS fluid will do.
Last edited by ScotcH; 01-21-2020 at 09:36 AM.
Thanks, good info.
With Scotch's setup, seems like it would be easy to plumb a small inline transmission cooler if you were worried about temps.
Follow this old thread. Used this setup on my E36 for 5 years. Worked great. Running the same setup on my new track car Z4 M Coupe.
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...Power+steering
I installed the BW kit last year. It leaks. F everything.
Well THAT bites!
Dave
'18 RAM 2500 Laramie Cummins
'15 Pure White VW Touareg TDI
///'95 Avus M3 S54B32 Race car -- 2022 ProAutoSports PS1 Champion
///'72 Chamonix 2002 (Restoration project)
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