Having TREATED my steering rack leak on my 98 for quite some time now (leak has virtually stopped), I finally took the trouble to pinpoint the source of the leak. It looks to be the part of the rack assembly that's vertical (toward the steering coupling). There are two side by side one inch discs that seem to be held in place with large torx screws and have lines going to them. I assume the steering gears are in there? And that there are seal rings in those discs that became compromised?

I've cleaned everything up and will keep an eye on it. If it turns out that that's definitely where the leak is coming from, is it a simple matter just to replace those seal rings?

This thread seems to address the issue: http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w210-e-class/1614308-leak-steering-rack.html#post4932559

I guess I have some concern about removing those torx screws.

__________________
14 E250 Bluetec "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 153k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 171k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver, 142k mi, wastegate conversion

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

That part is called the valve body of the steering gear, Im pretty sure that those two screws would be incredibly uber tight.

Those lines are controlling the fluid feed on either side of the power piston (bulkhead) on rack itself.

I would suggest you try it on a hot rack and eat some wheaties before the wrestling match. I have no experience with MB rack but the screws can be incredibly tight or even threadlocked

__________________
2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

Yikes! That's what I was afraid of. I guess I can see why people just replace the rack.

I'll probably just leave alone then. The leak is very negligible these days. If I ever decide to deal with it (due to the leak increasing), I might just tell my mechanic to give it his best shot and, if worse comes to worse, just replace the rack.

__________________
14 E250 Bluetec "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 153k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 171k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver, 142k mi, wastegate conversion

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

Read a few stories over on Benzworld of guys attempting to replace those seal rings....didn't work out so well.

__________________
14 E250 Bluetec "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 153k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 171k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver, 142k mi, wastegate conversion

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife