Not long ago I blew a CV and had to swap it. When cleaning up the grease I just happened to notice a metal steering line rubbing on a "bump" on the steering rack. There was even a small silver paste that developed. I put a cable tie under to keep the line from making direct contact until today when I did an overhaul of the steering. I had developed a major leak/spray when putting the steering under pressure. The pump would groan too. I suspected a bad line, could have just been an o-ring on a line connection but with 235k miles on a 2006 I figured time to swap it all.

So really this is just a warning to check and see if you may have this issue. Keep in mind that lines are specific to LHD or RHD, being an NA build, I am LHD and part "RACK TO COOLER PIPE - QEP500332" was what was damaged. This has a quick connect to the PS cooler pipe. A fuel rail tool thing is all that is needed to slip up into the connection to release the hose section from the cooler end. PAIN to get at though. I took the top fan shroud of and just sorta jammed by hand in there to get it out. But all my cooling hoses are new so no real risk of any plastic bit breaking.

Where the rubbing specifically happened was just inches from where it enters the rack (green arrow below). It comes up and over the top and is the pipe on the driver side, a second pipe is next to it by millimeters. The rack has some sorta bump up on the casting (circled below) and this was making contact. I feel this is a poor design because even my new hose can rub if they slip down so I put another cable tie for now. I may go under and carefully bend the line on the passenger side upwards a little. This will lift the other one as they use a plastic joiner. Also these lines at the rack have an insane amount of play/slop. This is normal although weird to me. I feel like there need to be another bracket or sorts to support the lines in this area and keep then from moving.