I recently purchased an 02 A6 3.0 Avant to replace my worn out 00 A6. Car has 200,000 miles, and had a slight stutter issue when I bought it. I went through the engine, replaced all the vacuum lines since they were falling apart, then replaced all the PCV lines since each one was cracked. I also noticed the power steering suction line that ran on top of the power steering pump was beginning to crack and crumble, so I replaced it with some large cooler line I had in the shop.

Started the car up, and while the engine ran great now that it wasn't fighting 10 vacuum leaks, I noticed I had no power steering. Car was only running for about 30 seconds. Shut it off and went out to check the hose, and saw that it had pinched **** because of the extreme angle it was at. I also looked under the car and there was power steering fluid everywhere. Opened the reservoir and it was almost completely empty.

Went to the stealership to get a pre-bent hose to replace the straight one I had fabbed up, and some more CH11 as I was just about out. Got home, put the new hose on, filled the reservoir and started the car. Nothing. No movement of fluid in the res, no bubbles, nothing. Lifted the front end, turned the wheels lock to lock a dozen times (with the car off) and still nothing. Tried starting and turning wheels and still nothing.

Is my pump shot? I was unable to see where the fluid that leaked out from under the car had come from, is there any sort of pressure release or a safety the would allow the fluid to come out if the pressure was too high? I'm not sure where to start looking, and any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Also, I just checked back to the service records for the car, the power steering pump was replaced 15,000 miles ago at the audi dealership and the system was flushed with new fluid.

 

UPDATE and MORE INFO: I went back in the shop to try to get some more info on the car to pinpoint the problem. First, with the wheels off the ground and the PS reservoir full, with the car off, I turned the wheels from lock to lock. While doing this I can see the level of fluid in the res going up as the wheels approach full left or right turn. This leads me to believe the low pressure return system is working fine with no leaks.

Next, to see if the pump was moving any fluid, I pulled the Banjo fitting at the top of the pump and inserted a hose in the pump hole and ran that into a can. I started the car and fluid came out, but not with any real force. At the rate is was coming out it would have taken about 30 seconds to fill a pop can. This leads me to believe I toasted the pump as I'm pretty sure the fluid is supposed to come out very rapidly, and with some force. Hopefully someone can chime in and correct me if I'm wrong.

Assuming that the pump is the problem, any ideas where to look to see where all the fluid that leaked out originally came out of? If the suction tube was blocked off, could the fluid have just come out of the res. cap while the pump ran itself to death?

 

I can't comment on exactly what may have happened, but I have a 1998 and had a power steering leak, lost all the fluid and had to drive for a few minutes to get to where I could get the car towed. I put some fluid in it and could see a hose was leaking. After that though the power steering pump does groan when cold. But it's is hard to think the pump failed that quickly in your case.