Wow! I'd forgotten how expensive the old LHM Fluid is...

Yep, I met the Big Red Light for the first time since buying this one.

The steering began to feel a little heavy and the Big Red Light came on. Can only mean one thing. Sure enough, the little white disc in the fluid level indicator had almost sunk without trace so I head for my local friendly car spares shop and hand over the thick end of a fiver for a litre of LHM.

It all goes into the tank and the little white disc shows up again.

By the time I reached home, the steering was beginning to feel strange again, so up with the bonnet and sure enough, the little white disc was heading south again.

The best way to search for a leak in the hydraulic system is just to let the car stand for a while. The pool of expensive fluid will give you a good idea of where to look. In this case, the return pipe from the steering rack up to the fluid tank turned out to be the culprit. It had simply perished and split just where it joins onto the metal pipe on top of the rack. In fact, it is right next to the floppy gear linkage in the last post.

Photographs and all the gory details coming soon ...