Evo Power Steering Leak

[fastandcurious]

My E36 M3 Convertible has been sat in the garage, not being driven, for a few weeks now. Today, when I reversed the car out to clean off the dust I noticed a considerable sized pool of oil on the floor under where the engine bay had been. Under close inspection I identified this to be power steering fluid. I removed the air filter, so I could check the level in the reservoir, which was quite low (below min mark). I jacked the car up and removed the under tray, which had a considerable amount of fluid in it and running out of the corners. Looking up under the reservoir I noticed what appeared to be a slight leak but nothing in comparison to the amount of fluid on the floor. I can't seem to locate the exact source of the leak and fail to understand how it can have started to leak when it hasn't been driven anywhere (last manually moved the car back about 1 week ago and there was no apparent leak). The rack,pump, hoses, etc, all seem fine. Does anyone know the most likely cause?

[naetype]

There's a good chance it's coming from the hoses connected directly to the reservoir. The shorter one also has a 'swivel' joint where it connects to the power steering pump and it can often leak from there. Otherwise there are 2 metal gaskets for each hose connector to the pump and the rack, often these are put back together using just the one on the upper/top side of the hose end and it'll then weep from the opposite side of the hose connector.

See here:

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=BF92...

If your a fairly competent diy'r you can swap the hoses and gaskets yourself.

[fastandcurious]

Thanks Alan for that. The diagram and part numbers will be most helpful.