Last Sunday morning, noticed a drop of what looked like oil on the ground, just about under the sump guard of the beast & was like

after remembering all the horror stories floating around the forum about Safari oil leaks!
Decided to observe closely & established at the end of Monday that it wasn't noticeable when the engine was idling but did settle into a tiny wet patch when the vehicle was stationery for a while with the engine off. It obviously wasn't the Brake fluid else I would have felt it & the warning light would have come on. The steering was feeling OK so it shouldn't be the power steering fluid either - tried opening the container but it was so tight that I decided not to risk breaking it! Checked the engine oil level & it was at the "Max" mark & no reductions were visible. So I was perplexed & fixed up an appointment with the workshop with horror stories actively playing hide & seek in my brain.
Next day & the day after, couldn't find the time to go across - the drops continued & the beast continued in its usual style with no changes in performance, nor did any warning lights come on. Each day, I checked the engine oil level which remained the same so I was convinced it was something else.
Valentines Day, decided that
I HAD TO GET OUT OF OFFICE and attend to the problem so off I went post lunch to the workshop. They hiked the behemoth on the lift, removed the sump guard, examined it, brought the vehicle down, removed the engine cover & viola! It was the clip holding one of the pipes coming out of the power steering fluid container that had broken. Although I hadn't felt it, the Senior WM had raised his eyebrows initially because he felt the steering to be harder than it should be. The power steering fluid level was almost down to zero

& it was the only thing that I hadn't been able to open & check! Anyway, the clip was replaced, fluid was topped up, the engine compartment was cleaned out completely, cover & sump guard were fitted back & we were on our way.
Checked this morning for any tell-tale oil/fluid drops but there were none - what a relief! No seals leaking, thank God. I did ask what could have caused the clip to break but I guess that was a stupid question - the way this vehicle is driven, by way of flying over speed breakers, bad patches & (of late) a long kilometer stretch of undulations on the left side of MG Road (a little before Ghitorni), I wouldn't be surprised if something else breaks soon. There have been a couple of occasions at least in the past couple of weeks when one wheel has been airborne & then come thumping back on the ground (I do apologize to the beast but that's one of the side effects of driving back late from Office & having a tough behemoth at your disposal - pedal to metal & to hell with the bumps & potholes).
While the beast was on the lift, I learnt a couple of things that I thought I'd share with my fellow Safari mates (courtesy the Sr WM) -
1) There are a couple of holes in the underside of the front bumper which actually enable the fog lamps (in VX & EX models) to be adjusted for the desired level. You need one of those long handled screw drivers to do the job
2) I had wondered what the digital temperature display (position number 4 on the information display in the speedo cluster on pressing the mode button) was all about because it certainly didn't measure the ambient temperature accurately. I learnt that it was to measure the temperature of the
steel on the body, not the atmosphere. It is apparently something that is extremely useful in the colder countries & is primarily meant for the export models but is there in ours as well.
So, useful information to pick up during the course of an afternoon! That's all for the moment folks, will update you when the 30k service is done - will probably be sometime next month. Cheers