How to Replace the Power Steering Hose, 5th Gen Prelude

This is not the easiest repair, but it is do-able at home. To make things easier, I’d suggest getting someone to help at a certain point - preferably someone with small hands and forearms. In my case, it was my wife!

1. Jack the front of the car up, and remove the front left wheel for better accessibility.
2. Remove the two 10mm bolts attaching the PS (power steering) hose to the pump.
3. Remove sensor, and the bolts holding the mid-section of the hose in place.
4. Put a drain pan underneath the hose where it attaches to the rack and pinion, and unscrew the bolt on the end of the old hose.
5. Remove the old hose, transfer the sensor, and set the new hose in place.
6. Screw in the bolt on the hose to attach it to the rack and pinion.
7. Screw in the bolts holding the mid-section of the hose in place.
8. Screw in the two 10mm bolts attaching the hose to the pump.
9. Replace HONDA power steering fluid to the top line.
10. With the car still jacked up and car off, turn the steering wheel back and forth several times.
11. Refill the PS fluid to the top line.

1. Jack the front of the car up, and remove the front left wheel for better accessibility.

You don’t need the whole car up, but it wouldn’t hurt. Use jack stands. You’ll appreciate having the wheel out of the way when you have to get under the car.

2. Remove the two 10mm bolts attaching the PS (power steering) hose to the pump.

Then, slowly, pull the hose straight up and off of its connection. Do it slowly because fluid is going to drain out of the hose when you pull it up. Let it drain back down into the reservoir.

3. Remove the sensor connector, and the bolts holding the mid-section of the hose in place.

The sensor is located underneath the engine, and attaches to the hose. WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES.

The first bolt is in plain sight on the cover of the engine block. The second one I would actually not even attempt unless you have the engine lifted. Otherwise, I don’t understand how anyone could reach it. It is accessed by getting underneath the engine and feeling around the path of the hose. The bolt is facing upward. I ended up cutting the material actually holding the hose and pulling it out of there, and didn’t touch that pesky bolt. If you can get to\u00a0the bolt somehow, well, good for you.

4. Put a drain pan underneath the hose where it attaches to the rack and pinion, and unscrew the bolt on the end of the old hose.

This part is lame because it’s pretty far down in the engine bay and extremely hard to reach. This is where your friend with slender limbs might come in handy, but if you can get to it, you’ll need an open ended wrench. I believe it takes a 13mm. I was able to get to it from the top, without getting underneath the car. You can reach it from underneath the car, but you won’t have much room to fit the wrench unless you take out more parts. Once you unscrew it enough to finish it by hand, you’ll notice fluid starting to leak out. Pull it all the way out.

5. Remove the old hose, transfer the sensor, and and set the new hose in place.

At this point, you should be able to remove the old hose. I pulled it down from the bottom. Remove the sensor from the old hose (I used an adjustable wrench), and install it onto the new hose. I bought an aftermarket hose from carpartkings.com, which took forever to ship but was only about $60. Your new hose should also come with O-rings, which you should install on both ends. Otherwise, your new hose could leak at the connections. \u00a0I put the hose in from the top. It can be difficult to wiggle the metal end of the hose around the fixtures, but be patient and gentle - you’ll eventually get it in place.

6. Screw in the bolt on the hose to attach it to the rack and pinion assembly.

This part can be extremely difficult, and for me it was impossible without someone else’s help. The hose and bolt need to go in completely straight, and you need to start the threads by hand. To get it straight, I went underneath the car and held the metal part of the hose, at the part where it curves, and pulled it downward. That allowed me to line it up just right, and my wife screwed in the bolt by hand from the top. I attempted to do this by myself for several hours with no success. With someone else’s help, we got it straight in within 10 minutes.

7. Screw in the bolts holding the mid-section of the hose in place.

Overlooking the hard-to-get bolt I mentioned above, this should be fairly straight forward. At this point you are putting things back together, following these steps in reverse order.

8. Screw in the two 10mm bolts attaching the hose to the pump.

Also straight forward. Except in my case, the aftermarket hose I bought ended up being too thick at the part where it attaches to the pump, so I ended up having to buy longer bolts to fasten it on. If this is your case, the size you’ll need is M6 x 1.0, I believe. Get them a little longer, and in my case I used an electric angle grinder (about $20 at Harbor Freight) to shave off the length I did not need.

9. Replace Honda\u00a0power steering fluid to the top line.

Make sure it’s Honda-approved fluid; otherwise, you’ll break the pump. I bought a\u00a032oz bottle and used maybe half of it, total. Fill the reservoir to the line.

Now, in my case, I had put some Lucas Stop Leak in, and after talking to different people, I decided to pump all of that old stuff back out (I saved the old fluid and put it back in). I used a fluid transfer pump, and, with the car off, turned the steering wheel back and forth to get the fluid back into the reservoir until nothing else came out. Everyone from the folks at O’Reilly and Autozone to my buddy who is getting his Honda certification said that anything other than the Honda PS fluid, including Lucas, will ruin my pump. That’s in spite of Lucas claiming it works in all cars.

10. With the car still jacked up and car off, turn the steering wheel back and forth several times.

This will circulate the fluid through your system, and hopefully prevent air from getting in. Make sure you do this with both front wheels up in the air. The fluid level should go down after you turn the wheel (all the way) to the left and to the right several times.

11. Refill the PS fluid to the top line.