I did a search and couldn't find anything. What is this? And why is it in the power steering hose that leads from the reservoir to the power steering pump?

 

The power steering system load is measured and your idle speed is adjusted as power assist is required so idle speed remains stable.

 

um...ok....so I guess the pink plug is suppose to be there and it wouldn't be causing my power steering to fail?

 

It's in the suction line between the reservoir and the pump?

 

Yep. There are two large diameter hoses that connect to the PS pump. The pink plug was in the hose without the copper fitting. I pulled the hose without the copper fitting off the power steering pump and the pink plug came out along with the excess power steering fluid.

Is it suppose to be in the hose?

 

Was hoping to put the power steering back together tomorrow. Anyone else have any other thoughts?

 

Is it hollow in the center, or is it an actual plug?

From what I can tell in FAST, there isn't supposed to be anything in or around the suction line, just the line itself and the two hose clamps.

 

Plug as in end cap? Possibly put on the hose to keep contamination out during assy?

 

It's not hollow in the center. It's an actual plug.

It's not an end cap either because the diameter of the plug is slightly less than the hose and the plug was found inside the hose.

So it looks like it's not suppose to be in there. I'll leave it out when reconncecting the hose to the ps pump.

Here's what I think happened. The power steering stopped working right after a shop helped me remove the old water pump. So I'm thinking that they drained the reservoir by disconnecting the hose from the reservoir, and then plugged the hose to keep contamination out of the hose. When they reconnected the hose to the reservoir, they forgot to take the plug out.

 

Yea, there's no way in hell the suction hose should be completely stopped off. Did you drive around with the car like that? If you starved the pump of fluid, could've caused some damage.

I'd highly suggest taking pictures of the hose on the pump, then the hose pulled off with the cap in it, and the cap, etc and show them to the shop. If you have any issues with your PS pump in the near future, I'd go straight back to them to have them fix it on their dime.

 

 

Good idea on the pictures. Yeah the power steering pump has been out ever since the shop returned the car to me. I'm in the middle of replacing the power steering pump which is how I found the plug.

Thanks to everyones feedback and ideas.

 

This's interesting, I'm subbing to see the pics.

 

Do you think it could be an access hole to perform a PS fluid flush?

 

Here is a picture looking at the power steering pump from underneath the car showing how I found the plug in the power steering hose.