Our mechanic is a nice guy. He has been our mechanic for around 7 years now and done a lot of work on the Jeep.
His shop lot is currently packed with cars for service.
We brought the Jeep to him this week asking him to fix an apparent power steering leak and a washer fluid leak.
The shop reworked the power steering system in June 2019. This week the power steering reservoir was empty. It didn't take a lot of fluid to get the stick to say full.
When we took the car to his shop this week the Jeep had fluid (very) slowly dripping onto his shop floor.
Two days later he called my wife to say the car was ready - they had found that the power steering was "spitting" oil. I called him back and asked about the washer fluid leak.
There is no leak he said. We could not find it. I told him the dash light was coming on. He said he would have a closer look.
So we have had the car back two days now. I was so happy our leaks were repaired, yesterday I pressure washed the street where where we park the Jeep.
But for the heck of it I stuck a piece of cardboard where the washer fluid had been leaking. This morning the cardboard had a large water stain on it. We took the car shopping today.
The washer fluid light has not yet come on yet. (Could it be a radiator leak ?)
I put the cardboard back under the front end. I don't see any new water leaks at the moment - but - now I see what looks like yet another power steering fluid leak (maybe a little smaller than before).

How can I help my mechanic help me ?

Thanks.

 

You need to look under the hood and check your fluid reservoirs to see what is leaking.
The power steering fluid you are still seeing, if that is what it is, may just be residual fluid that was pooled somewhere when it was leaking.

 

You may want to crawl under your Jeep with a bright flashlight or shop light and check the quick connects on the transmission cooling lines. Also look around all the hydraulic lines for the power steering for wetness or drips.

 

its on YOU to regularly check fluid levels. allowing the power steering to run dry will result in destruction of the pump and possibly the gear box, that will be a very expensive mistake. also have handy a bottle of fluid to top things up. if you note the fluid going low, get it fixed, until then keep it topped off.

Wiper fluid, well if you dont use the right fluid it can freeze and that freezing can crack parts thus making them leak.


Keep the engine bay super clean, to make leak spotting easier. check frequently as an long running leak can get things so wet that it maybe hard to pin point the location of the leak, the fan and air movement from driving can blow leaked fluid all over, making leak pin pointing hard.

Know the color and smells of the fluids, antifreeze has a distinct odor, you can get a whiff from a bottle of antifreeze or your cooling system, learn to recognize the smell. check what color antifreeze you are using, green is a common color, but there are others. wiper fluid is often blue, and may have an alchohol odor. traany fluid is red, power steering fluid is often clear, but sometime tranny fluid is used in it, so it maybe red. tranny fluid and power steering fluid will feel oily, antifreeze will be slightly slippery. washer fluid will usually evaporate leaving no residue, antifreeze wont fully evaporate when spilled, but will dissolve in water. power steering and tranny fluid wont evaporate, and wont mix with water at all. engine oil will be golden to black depending on how dirty it is. gasoline, well that smells like gas, and will evaporate fast, gasoline leaks must be dealt with promptly, car not started until addressed, and must be parked outside away from ignition sources, NOT in your garage.

 

Thank you all for your replies.
I am an old man and the days of my crawling under the Jeep to look for leaks have passed, which is why I bring it in to a shop.
There is no Jeep on the planet that is more pampered than ours (we are the original owners 220,000 miles ago).
On 12/12/20 the shop "Change oil, spark plugs, air filter, clean injectors, adjust brakes". I would hope they also checked the fluid levels.
The Jeep engine compartment was last pressure washed on 11/25/20.

I am putting aside the potential power steering leak for the moment because that may have been a residual thing.

As for the leaky washer fluid leak - well I filled that myself with a very watery blue liquid not too long ago. I suspect that when that hits the
cardboard it would be hard to tell the difference between it and pure water.

But - the slope of the ground where we park the Jeep is maybe 10-20 degrees. I wonder if there is a leak in the tubing that goes from the
pump area to the windshield and over the course of an hour or so that leak traverses back down to the front of the vehicle. So an hour or so
ago I cleaned the windshield to test my theory.

As far as I know we have never had any work done with the washer mechanism - although from time to time over the years we have had
fender bender type repairs made...

 

So it looks like the leak is coming from the washer fluid tank. It is odd that it only leaks when the wiper wash is used and as best I can tell once it starts leaking it doesn't seem to stop.
I guess the repair shop never tried using the wash feature.

Maybe I get lucky and a hose has become disconnected from the pump.

Edit : Not sure how it could be leaking so badly and yet still send water to the windshield.

 

open the hood, ask a nimble helper to observe the washer tank and washer tube while you activate the washer, perhaps the helper can find the leak. early xjs have washer tank inside the engine bay near the brake master, later xjs have the tank inside the left front fender well. helper should have a bright flashlight to brighten up the shadows, and a small mirror to aid in seeing under things.

Also look in the cowl area, the leak maybe just below the nozzles, in which case the fluid will run into the cowl, and drip out the cowl drain holes

If you have trouble seeing the leak do to its light blue color, consider a water soluable leak detector U.V. dye, of course you will need a UV lamp for that

I am second owner, bought mine from first owner two years ago, just hit 300,000 miles! original tranny, but the engine was rebuilt about 50k miles ago.

 

for the washer leak, given you have stated physical limitations, I would just take that to the mechanic, and tell him to fix it properly this time

same goes for the leak underneath, although I use this procedure for leaks...but you do have to slide under the vehicle

degrease the suspect area, clean it up till white rags till it is spotless, dust the area with baby powder of cornflower, either let vehicle sit, or run for about 3min

leak will leave a trail

takes a couple of hours prep and messy, just be patient...or pay someone else

 

Thanks again everyone for your replies.
At one point this morning I did stick my head under the front end and noticed that the 'drip' was falling down from the 'crowl'. Is that what the 3 plastic segments along the front end are called ? The drip was at the 'plug' that connected the two segments of the crowl.
Interestingly - I turned the Jeep around so its front end is pointing up the slope and there is no more leak (obvious anyway).
I sent an email to the mechanic this morning with the same photo I posted here and he said bring it back in. That is not quite as easy as it sounds.
I'm afraid it may be time to find a little redundancy.

btw : our washer tank is the flavor which is buried.