I've had a slight power steering leak for awhile. A couple weeks ago I decided to try Lucas Power Steering stop leak, but to no avail it didn’t work. As a matter of fact, I think it made the leak worst. Before the stop leak, I wasn’t quite sure where the leak was coming from. Everything was moist and slightly coated with oil. After the stop leak, it was apparent my high pressure power steering hose was leaking pretty well. No big deal, stop off at the parts store on my home from work and purchase a new hose. Back car into the garage, put it on jack stands and changed the hose. With the new hose installed and the car still on jack stands, I started the engine and turned the steering wheel lock-to-lock to bleed and check the system for leaks. Steering wheel felt good (suspension still off ground) and no leaks. Shut the engine off, removed the jack stands, shut the garage door and went inside for the night.

This morning when I was pulling out the garage, you guessed it, no power steering assist at all. Freaking great, now I'm thinking maybe the stop leak took out my pump. Drove to work (13 miles) and the steering didn’t get better, still little to no assist. So before I change the pump, has anyone ever flush their power steering fluid.

I’m more curious about the flow chart. I assume it flows from the reservoir, to the pump, to the rack, to the cooler and back to reservoir. If that’s the case, maybe I can rig something up to completely flush the stop leak from the system to see what happens before changing the pump.

 

I'm gonna rebuild my rack and pinion soon because it's leaking like hell and destroying my bushings. you can try UV light testing for leaks just to be sure. Flushing the system is not recommended because it's pressurized. just drain it. You can also do an oil pressure test.

 

I'm having a big problem with my power steering system, and it may be related to what you condition is. I don't know exactly what is wrong, but I can explain the symptoms.

The system sat open for 8 months (hoses from the rack, cooler, reservoir were exposed to outside air under the hood). When I put it all back together, I have no p/s and every pump I have put on there, which is 3 pumps, is destroyed. It begins to "whirr" and eventually the pulley axle falls out, literally.....

So, I am going to remove all the easy to access components when I drop the tranny for a clutch replacement, and try to clear all lines of debris. I think a bug may have made a home in there and caused a blockage.....

Maybe a torn gasket or seal has made it into your system too?

 

A blockage did cross my mind. But unlike your system, my system was only open for 5-10 minutes. The time it took to replace the hose. Prior to replacing the hose and even with the fluid leak, I still had power steering. Replace the hose, bleed the system, no power steering. The blockage idea cross my mind with the new hose. What's the possibility that the new hose can be defective internally. It's a big ase 1/2" hose so who knows.

 

When you bleed the system, you're supposed to turn it from lock to lock a bunch of times with the engine OFF. running are through it with engine on might have killed the vanes in the pump. I hope not though. it's a PITA to change.

 

we had a Buick at work a few months ago that did that, went through like 5 power steering pumps, put a used rack in it and it stopped blowing up pumps

 

I don't remember doing that per say, but it's been a while since I had my hands dirty with her... I was in the presence of experienced mechanics who were perplexed as well, though...

I heard from a mechanic that it could be the seals inside the rack. He said it's possible that they may have become locked in place from sitting still and quite possibly dry. I don't know enough about the racks to determine if they could block pressure, which could blow out the pump vanes, or cause some kind of damage.

I've got a few pumps if anyone wants to try and Frankenstein something together for fun. I'm thinkin about getting one with a warranty next time....

What do you think was wrong with the old rack?

 

i dont think we even figured it out, it had the signs of a bad pump so we put a new one in and it started acting up again, and it turned out another place put a PS pump in it a few months before we put our first one in. we couldnt find anything else so we just installed the used rack and another new pump and it fixed it

 

Convenient (for me) thread. As some of you may know, I've been rebuilding my black VE over this past year and now have a brand new steering rack, PS pump, hoses, etc. I'd like to truly flush it somehow. This weekend I need to put coolant in the car, oil, gearbox oil, and PS fluid and the car should be ready to go

 

Awhile back I had the joy of changing the high pressure hose, and with it came the bleeding process and overall dilution of the wrong ps fluid I put it. I used a siphon to remove the old fluid from the reservoir while adding more during the bleeding process. It worked very well.

I had thought about removing the return line from the pump to the reservoir like you suggested, but I didn't have the means to catch the fluid at the time. Raising the front end of the car up helps with the process as well. There's an article somewhere on this board on the proper way to bleed.

 

I was hoping this thread would have gone into archive heaven, because I found the cause of my problem. I’m embraces to say my reservoir was low on fluid which was causing the loss of power assist. The Locus stop leak is pretty thick, so after changing my hose, I pop the reservoir cap and notice liquid (or some other similar substance) was still in the mesh screen of the reservoir. So I closed the cap thinking it had enough fluid and proceeded with the bleeding process. And since the front end was up on jack stands while I was bleeding the system, I would have not notice I had no power assist. The funny thing is that the pump wasn’t making the usually whiring noise when the reservoir gets low on fluid. I drove for about two days with an empty reservoir thinking of all the reasons why I lost my power steering. Then finally I re-checked the reservoir and it was empty. You wouldn’t believe how ****ty I felt. If this was one of my customers’ cars I would have lost a lot of credibility. What really sucks is that my pump is now making a ever so slight whiring noise at different times, a noise it have NEVER made in the 15yrs I’ve had the car. I’m hoping the noise will eventually go away, but if it don’t I have no one to blame.

 

Too bad Rock Auto doesn't have any on close out anymore. I have new (rebuilt) pumps in both my 3rd gens now, both bought on close out at about $40 each with no core requirement

 

When I flushed my 318Ti PS fluid, I just pulled out the return line from the reservoir, fill the reservoir all the way up, start the engine, go lock to lock in under a second and shut it right off. Did this process about 4 times, cleaned it out pretty well. Did this procedure to an STI and a Accord as well.

On the STI I had to do a PS pump replacement and when I was bleeding the system, the steering wheel shook violently, made me worried for a moment. After talking to a mechanic, they told me that when your bleeding the steering system, you need to have the engine on and when going lock to lock, you have to hold it fully lock (both ways) so that it can open some kind of check vlave in the steering rack.

 

Man, I love your sig pic. Gorgeous stock-ish VE!