4.8is Power Steering Hose Replacement
 

My 06 4.8is is leaking power steering fluid, the most obvious place is right at the reservoir which I can tell from just popping the hood. I'm also lead to believe the the pressure hose is also leaking. I had the belly cover this weekend doing a visual check and cleaned everything up and I'll check again this weekend to hopefully have a better idea. It leaves a couple drops of fluid on the garage floor each night and has not gotten much worse over the course of the last two months. I've only had to top off the reservoir twice since late January.

Anyway. My Indy is suggesting to go ahead and replace all the lines from top to bottom. I trust them, but I'm also wondering if this is overkill preventative maintenance. With all the parts and labor its not exactly a quick no brainer on my part. The more I'm reading through various threads here it appears that people really only have issues with the pressure hose (#11 in the GetBMW link below) and anything else that is leaking is typically because of a faulty clamp.

2006 BMW X5 Parts - getBMWparts.com - Exceptional Pricing | Unparalleled Service | Genuine BMW Parts

I'm going to pull the belly pan again this weekend just to get another look, and try to tightening anything down but in the meantime does anyone have any helpful tips or personal experiences on the power steering lines?

Find out if its leaking at the ends. Make sure the hoses are long enough, cut off each end where it is leaking and re tighten it with new hose clamps. That was what i did on mine.

the hoses are around 38$ each OEM
i got the fluid resivoir locally for 26$ ZF
resivoir has a non replaceable filter in it so changing it is good

you will need 4 hose clamps

i did it myself took an hour, be careful with the upper radiator small hose, where it connects to the top of the radiator hose is a plastic small line that will break if you havnt changed it before (mine did with the slightest touch of my arm)

I did the same thing about a year ago and mine's holding strong. Wish my alternator bracket seal was doing the same :(

When you say at the ends, your talking about the ends of the hose that connect into the bottom of the reservoir I am assume?

If your looking at the reservoir check the o-ring in the cap. Mine was hard with age and it caused it to seep or leave a film over everything. New o-ring and it all stays clean.

Yes.

The reservoir isn't seeping or leaking anywhere around the cap seal now but I'm going to go ahead and replace it when fixing the hoses. They are cheap enough and I'd like to have a new filter in there.