Did my mechanic lie to me?
 

Hi,

I had a mechanic come take a look at a power steering fluid leak I had. He identified the leak from the lines at the rack and pinion and proceeded to put in new ones. Here’s the explanation I got by text from him later:

“All the parts have been installed brand new it's just one of the lines won't screw in because it's being destroyed by the old line when it got loose and wiggled back-and-forth 1 million times it's stripped the threads out of the hole on the rack and pinion”

So I went to a shop and had a new rack and pinion installed, I told them my story and the mechanic showed me the ruined threads in the old rack and pinion. He said that wouldn’t have been caused by a vibrating loose line like the other mechanic suggested. He said it was from the mechanic putting the new line in crooked and stripped the threads himself.

So which one is true? Let me know what you think please. Here’s some pictures of the thread as well.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.ran...84f2774b4.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.ran...013257922.jpeg

Most likely answer is mechanic cross threaded that hose connection when trying to install it

BUT(big but)..........if it was leaking from that line/port then Previous Owner may have done it and put sealer in to hide that fact, it would hold cross threaded but would also leak a bit.
OR someone else tried to re-tighten it to stop the leak so cross threaded it then

mechanic would have removed it, and it would start tight but become instantly loose with 1/2 turn, so he may not have looked inside it.

So hard to say when it actually happened, but definitely not from "vibration"

No way that was from vibrations... it was cross threaded due to incompetence.