Low PS fluid

I decided to change the oil in my truck today since I was tired of pressing the arrow button on my steering wheel to make the notification go away. Checking my other fluids, I noticed I was strangely low on PS fluid.



Stupid orange triangle.

PS., check your R&P, i'm at 51K and have not abused my rack.

My truck has had a phantom click when backing up and turning, so it's probably been going on for awhile as I am assuming the noise is related to the leak as I have addressed most of the usual suspects.

Since I have not had any fluid drop, my plan as of now is simply to top off and monitor. Eventually I will replace the R&P, but meh.

 

Bigger tires? I should check mine

 

265/70-17 so only by the tiniest of margins.

 

Same size I got hmm. Now I'm curious.

 

I was poking around here today and it seems like bad/leaking rack and pinions are more popular than I originally thought.

 

I think it's magnified with bigger tires and other mods.

 

It's a problem that affected 2nd gens and didn't get fixed completely by the time of 3rd gens.

 

HA, most of the threads I read were second gen threads.
Toyota really makes you wonder sometimes.

 

Pull the boots and cycle the steering rack full travel. Checked the exposed rack surface for rust jacking, as that will cut into the seals.

 

Maybe, but it's also a problem the plagues a lot of newish stock trucks so I tend to think it's just bad luck and bad parts. As another poster mentioned, it's not an exclusive 3rd gen issue.