Try a comparison with the some oil from your dipstick, the oil in the DB9 is pretty light compared to the stuff we used a few years ago.

Incidentally, what does an oil separator actually separate?

 

I have adjusted your picture a bit, hope you dont mind. But the red arrow is the pcv valve. The green arrow is the oil seperator. Yes have seen those leak. Some might mistake the leak from this as a front cover leak. There is little hose that runs off the bottom of this to the front cover.

Basically a oil seperator, seperates vapours in the crank case from the oil, allowing vapor back into engine to be burned and leaving the oil the in oil pan.

 

Thanks AM Fixer-the green arrow is what is covered in dirty fluid! I spoke with Telum who had a leak at the oil seperator as well. It seemed like a very minor fix.

I believe there are 2 things happening:

1) Oil seperator leaking-there is dirty fluid all around it and down the hose that comes out the bottom. Is this engine oil? Checked my level and its good.

2) The fluid that I took a picture of at top of post is a golden/orangish/brownesh color and appear much cleaner than the liquid around the oil seperator. When I had shined the light in the PS the fluid looked green so I assumed this was not related even though it feels like I have lost power steering. I checked today and let it drip and the drip is the color under the car (gold/orange/brown) , not green as it appears in the resovuoir. Strange. Also noticed that the fluid smells burnt and is not see through at all when I shine a light through it.
I am having a hard time reading my power steering fluid level correctly as when you remove the cap, there is an attached dipstick that has two lines up it. Is it supposed to be between both cold? Mine is at the lower one and I am wondering if adding fluid may fix my steering issues.

Thanks!

 

Leaking oil seperator indeed..but not your concern of the steering issue(leak is a concern but not related). I've seen a large number of them that leak, and like AMFixer stated..can be misdiagnosed as a front cover leaking..get it replaced when you can and top up motor oil as needed..1 bolt and 2 hose clamps for air seperator replacement

The steering issue though, have you driven the car after the fun you had? Is the steering still heavey..can you input more on this..
-harder to turn when driving, parking
-is the steering heavy in straight lines
-the noise, when is it heard, all times, sometimes when turning, straight line, forward or reverse
-does steering now pull to one side, switches pulling from left then to right after hard corning or braking
**from what you wrote and I best "mind" simulate this..sounds like your caster adjustment is now loose in front which resulted in the heavy steering and the odd noise heard from the front end. The front caster bolt/bolts could have been just tight but not fully secured..when the whip-lash effect ocured in the doughnuts..caster bolts could have moved..this is "just" a complete guess..but seeing you have a have a lift, we can verify this**

 

Irish-Thank you for your help again. Telum had the same issue with the seperator and I will be getting that fixed.

With regards to the steering questions:
-I drove it home Thursday night and noticed that it was very hard to turn in either direction at slow speeds. While I was inching to the side to get on my lift it was very heavy. When you were at speed it felt almost normal but still a little heavy.
-In straight lines it felt normal
-The noise that I hear is only when turning in either direction. I heard it driving home and again today when I backed her out and just turned the wheel back and forth while parked.
-The steering still seems dead on, just much harder to turn especially at slow speed. There did not appear to be any pulling.
-I did notice today that the power steering fluid is near the lower line and smells terrible (burnt). I was going to have Thomas flush the fluid irregardles when he returns as it needs to be done.

Please let me know if you still think its the caster bolts. I can get under the car tomorrow with your direction. Thanks for the help as always.

 

One of the UK guys had a caster bolt snap recently worth having a look

 

Mikey, any idea on where the caster bolt is? I will take a look later when I get her up. Thanks

Did a search in the workshop manual for caster bolts and all that came up were the caster angles.

 

Based on the above, it sounds to me that you may have damaged your pump by being at full lock at high engine speeds for too long. The pump is displacing a lot of fluid at high engine speeds yet that fluid isn't flowing into the rack since it is hardover at full lock. That means that all of the pump's output has to be bypassed from pump outlet back to pump inlet to relieve that excess pressure.

And if that is compromised in any way, the pump will see excess pressure which will damage the internal seals causing excessive internal leakage. That means at low engine speeds, the pump may no longer be providing the necessary amount of flow (too much internal leakage) to pressurize the rack, while at higher speeds the pump displaces enough fluid to more than compensate for the extra leakage.

All just a theory...

 

About 10 years ago a guy on the XK8/XKR forum had a similar experience, damaging the pump with the wheels turned at full lock in order to do some donuts. I notice the pump reservoir on my DB9 looks awfully similar to the one that was on my 97 XK8, and thus it sure seems like a good candidate for the problem component.

 

If it was the pump, it would be whinning or grinding..don't believe it's the pump. There was a recall on the caster bolts snapping..don't know if yours was replaced or not..only cars in vin range had to be done.

To verify the front caster bolts..lift car and remove the front under tray(coupe) or trays(volante)..there are 2 bolts for the front lower control arms(1 arm per side and 2 bolts per side)..the rear bolt is the caster and the front bolt is the camber. Do not loosen the nuts/bolts..but try to turn the caster nut in the tightening direction..don't break the bolt but just see if the bolt/nut turns freely or needs to be secured more..if it does turn freely(broken)..if needs just to be secured(loose), alignment will be needed afterwards once secured.


If this is ok/secured, I'm starting to think possibly a power steering pressure sensor and flush..this can be inspected with a aston scan tool..thomas is best to tackle this from this point on

 

Oil or fluid having a "Burnt Smell" is never a good thing, so it certainly should be changed. But this is also a very good indication your problem is damage within the Power-steering pump, and changing the fluid will not fix that.

 

OK, Thanks to the advice, I removed the front tray and low and behold there is a bolt missing!!!! Irish-Is this the caster bolt you spoke of?

The missing bolt is on the passenger side.

The other two pictures show drips still remaining under the drivers side. Almost everything pictured still looks wet and putting my hand it feels like very light oil. There is not really a scent though. I had my front undertray off a month ago and none of these drips/wetness was here.

Could the doughnuts/force have caused the oil separator to have leaked and dripped all the way down? My oil level is good.

Thanks

 

Wow these pics really confuse me..there flipped , pics make me think this is a RHD car. The "missing bolt", is actually not missing, subframe is universal for RHD and LHD vehicles. There is only 3 bolts/nuts to hold the steering gear in place, 2 on the drivers side and 1 on the pass side.

In the first pic, at 3 o'clock, there is a bolt vertically in the pic going though a bushing of the lower control arm..this bolt is the camber bolt..in the same pic(which can't see) go north of this camber bolt, this is the other arm bushing which is at the rear most section of the arm, you will see a semi large nut(think 21 mm) threaded to a bolt going through the other arm bushing.....thats the caster bolt..check that bolt on and make sure it's ok..on front left and right sides, they both look the same

The oil leak, still appears to be the oil seperator..this would really have to be further checked into by visually checking the bottom of the seperator, if wet then replace..wash of sprayed oil on front cover and apply dye to engine oil..road test and check for any further leaks from timing cover, joint seal..etc

 

Sorry for the confusing pics, kept this one from the same perspective so that it would be easer to know what you are looking at. Given your direction, the attached pic shows the caster and camber, assuming this is correct both sides are fine.

I am beginning to think its the pump per the above perspectives and the burnt smell. Will be easier to tell when I can turn wheel and have someone listening in the engine bay. There was a slight buzz sound when driving home when turning.

 

Thats correct, but the caster bolt doesn't look like it moved in this pic for that side.

When the pump goes..you can normally hear it just sitting in the car with the windows open and turnign left to right(don't sit on full lock), unless the shaft snapped, then there would be no noise..but then you would be complaining of NO assist ever when driving in any conditions..

Burnt fluid can cause this like XJS stated, even a blockage..even a fault with the PPS ..aka power steering pressure sensor..there's really to many "could be's" that would have to be checked..not to hard to diagnose when in person with the aston amds scan tool, but really challenging over the net with no hands on

Judging from the color of the fluid in the pics, don't believe it's at all steering fluid(still going with seperator on leak)..if it was a power steering system leak, you'd have air sucked into the system and the pump would be growling and whinning big time..by this I mean the noise would get you freaked out to the point of you shutting down the car thinking you really screwed something UP this time! lol

I haven't talked with thomas in some time..hehe then again I've been on paid parental leave for a few weeks now at home..hehe that could be why