strange problem with power steering cooler
Thread Starter
11 Second Club
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 955
Likes: 4
From: Silver Spring, Md.
strange problem with power steering cooler I bought this car around a year ago and have had problems with the steering since day 1. The steering would be fine when cold but when hot it got extremely tough to turn, especially when the car wasn't moving. I changed the pump and it seemed to work for around a day but went right back to the way it was. A couple days ago while on my way home, I started to smell the PS fluid, then I saw smoke. I got the car home and found that fluid was all over the engine compartment. I got myself a short belt to bypass the pump and took it to the shop. We found that the seal on the pump had gone bad so the pump had to be replaced. After replacing the pump, the steering felt extreme light but I knew that that's the way it felt after the first pump replacement. Sure enough, the steering started getting tight again. This time, the pump was starting to make noise. I opened the pump reservoir and found the fluid was turning milky white, it started to overflow also. It appears that the cooler may have cracked and started to mix antifreeze with the ps fluid. I've decided to bypass the cooler after the entire system is flushed and hopefully I won't have any more steering problems. I know this is long but hopefully someone will benifit from my experience.
The PS system has a LOT more pressure in it than the cooling system does. So, if there is a crack in the cooler, the PS fluid should be emptying into the coolant as opposed to contaminating the PS fluid.
