Can adding too much power steering fluid cause a seal to fail?
I have seen it happen before on older cars with more miles then yours, but even then it is rare. It would involve filling up the power steering to the top which is WAY past the point that it should be at, and the car needs to be running hot. Plus you need to have an old seal on the car. That would have been only 15 months old, if it was replaced with a new part (might be worth looking at). That is not to say that the shop is not at fault, I have seen older cars then yours with WAY more miles that still have the original power steering seal on them. I am not saying that it didn’t need to be replaced 15 months ago, however there is no way it should need to be replaced again that soon, if ever. As for the pop sound, yes, that is what I would think of if a power steering seal failed. But to be honest, I have never heard one break, only worked on them after the fact. As for you having lost power steering, that will happen even with a small leak, as the system is under pressuse to run right.
