About a month ago, I started hearing a hollow "Groan" (NOT a belt slipping "screech") whenever I turned into parking spots at slow speeds. Not it's doing it at higher speeds like turning corners and an occasional tight on-ramp. It almost always does it on a right turn, and maybe 80% on a left turn. I tried draining the steering fluid and replacing w/ synthetic, and at the same time flushed the coolant system, and the noise went away for about a week, but now it's back. Any ideas as to what might be causing it and how to remedy??? I'm getting worried that my mileage is taking a toll on the poor car.

 

I have a friend that had the same problem. Turns out the steering pump was on the way out. After it was replaced the noise went right away. BTW it was 95 w/110k miles.

 

power steering rack

 

how much do these things cost? Any ideas? I guess there's no quick (and cheap) remedy.

 

i was quoted $500 for the rack excluding labor.
don't know how much a pump is

 

No idea if this will help, but my old Celica will groan when I turn full deflection (against the stops). There's supposed to be a plastic bushing on the end of the steering stop (a bolt basically) and with that worn away, it's metal contacting metal. But then my Celica is 17 years old and has almost 150,000 chassis miles

 

Full deflection is where it all started (when I had the wheel fully turned at slow speeds pulling into parking spots), but recently, it's been groaning when I'm just turning a corner when driving, or once, when going on a ramp onto the highway. So if the pump "dies" as I'm driving, do I just lose power steering and can drive around w/out for a short time, or will it cause some other serious problems if not fixed immediately. I guess what I'm asking is, should I get it taken care of now, or bear with it until it completely dies?

 

...when you pump dies (if it is the pump). It'll be a LOt harder to steer especially at low speeds. Just don't do any autocrossing or anything with a busted PS pump, might hurt the rack!

 

that **** sucks. if i slow down to turn a corner the steering wheel get stiff. i have to fight with it to parrellel park. when i leave my drive way the whole town knows. it just makes this annoying sqeeking noise. i have to turn the wheel all the way in both directions to get rid of the noise.

 

Just a suggestion... I could be wrong... but if you got new tires it could be that too...

Do you notice it only when the car is cold or even when its warmed up?

 

I'm pretty sure it's not the tires. It happens at all temps, and happened both before and after my buddy repaced the two (now on the front) that he toasted. Plus the sound is definitely not rubber. It's like a hollow metallic groan. Thanks.

I had a '69 mustang when I was in HS and I remember not having power steering on that puppy, parallel parking was b*tch.