Power Steering Issues
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 1,131
Likes: 4
From: Youngsville North Carolina
Power Steering Issues
Hi
Had a decent power steering leak. Shop replaced the high pressure power steering hose on Monday and flushed the PS fluid. Drove the car about 20mi home and parked on Monday PM. One small drop of fluid on the ground after two days when I drove it today. Assumed it could be from all the residual left around the engine from the leak. Drove the car about 5 mi and parked it for a few hours. Picked it back up and drove about .5 mi to a drive thru. Started hearing a lot of noise when I turned the wheel. Was dropping fluid all over the ground. Wheel was tough to turn. Got some power steering fluid in it and it started to turn again without noise and tried to get it home. Got about 2 miles before I could hear noises again. Then started to hear noise when not turning. In the driveway was making a lot of noise when turned turned into the garage still dropping fluid. There is still some fluid left in the resevoir now. Could smell burning...not sure if that was an internal component or from the power steering fluid hitting something hot. Called the person where the car was parked. Said there were no fluids on the ground.
Hose pop off? Pump? Rack?
Also the shop is 20 miles from my house. So it is going to be a real challenge getting it there...
Thanks for any insight...
Had a decent power steering leak. Shop replaced the high pressure power steering hose on Monday and flushed the PS fluid. Drove the car about 20mi home and parked on Monday PM. One small drop of fluid on the ground after two days when I drove it today. Assumed it could be from all the residual left around the engine from the leak. Drove the car about 5 mi and parked it for a few hours. Picked it back up and drove about .5 mi to a drive thru. Started hearing a lot of noise when I turned the wheel. Was dropping fluid all over the ground. Wheel was tough to turn. Got some power steering fluid in it and it started to turn again without noise and tried to get it home. Got about 2 miles before I could hear noises again. Then started to hear noise when not turning. In the driveway was making a lot of noise when turned turned into the garage still dropping fluid. There is still some fluid left in the resevoir now. Could smell burning...not sure if that was an internal component or from the power steering fluid hitting something hot. Called the person where the car was parked. Said there were no fluids on the ground.
Hose pop off? Pump? Rack?
Also the shop is 20 miles from my house. So it is going to be a real challenge getting it there...
Thanks for any insight...
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 1,131
Likes: 4
From: Youngsville North Carolina
Well the shop sent out a flatbed (Also said they know exactly how to deal with lowered corvettes....lets see). Pretty reputible place so nice they moved so quickly on it.
Guess we will find out soon where the leak is coming from.
They had to do a lot of labor just to do that high pressure hose - 2.5hr. If they need to get in there again for the hose, rack or pump is there anything else I should investigate doing at the same time? I guess I am making an assumption that much of the same labor to get to any of those three issues. I am having one of them is a safe assumption...
Guess we will find out soon where the leak is coming from.
They had to do a lot of labor just to do that high pressure hose - 2.5hr. If they need to get in there again for the hose, rack or pump is there anything else I should investigate doing at the same time? I guess I am making an assumption that much of the same labor to get to any of those three issues. I am having one of them is a safe assumption...
Tech Contributor
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 10,962
Likes: 29
From: Van Buren Arkansas
Wounded Warrior Escort '11
For this issue, its just the pump and rack. While you had the previous leak, was there any issues with the rack, burning smells that you are having now or anything else? Seriously, I'm wondering if they put in the wrong fluid and ruined the pump, possibly messing up the rack. Some fluids will trash other things like ATF in the brake system and so on. I'm not a PS expert in any way but looking for root causes based upon what was working prior and what wasn't.
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 1,131
Likes: 4
From: Youngsville North Carolina
Maybe this should have been in C5 General after all.
There ended up being some kind of nut that poped off the high presure hose. The tech tried to explain why it popped and why it wouldn't happen again. So that was REALLY good news for now. Drove the cars about 75miles the rest of the day. Took it thru parking lots doing slow turns. Things seem fine. Nice doing business with a repituble business (Atlantic Tire in Raleigh, NC). No charge for the flatbed. Eventhough they were very busy took it in immediately. The flatbed did a great job with the vette. Had premade blocks to ride up on and then just drove onto the bed. Never rubbed. No chain/cable used to pull it up. All good.
Now there was a lot of power steering fluid slung everywhere in the bottom of the engine bay. How important is it to clean it all off? They said they tried to get as much as they could. But I have a feeling my version of clean and theirs is a little different.
Thanks for the replies
There ended up being some kind of nut that poped off the high presure hose. The tech tried to explain why it popped and why it wouldn't happen again. So that was REALLY good news for now. Drove the cars about 75miles the rest of the day. Took it thru parking lots doing slow turns. Things seem fine. Nice doing business with a repituble business (Atlantic Tire in Raleigh, NC). No charge for the flatbed. Eventhough they were very busy took it in immediately. The flatbed did a great job with the vette. Had premade blocks to ride up on and then just drove onto the bed. Never rubbed. No chain/cable used to pull it up. All good.
Now there was a lot of power steering fluid slung everywhere in the bottom of the engine bay. How important is it to clean it all off? They said they tried to get as much as they could. But I have a feeling my version of clean and theirs is a little different.
Thanks for the replies
Tech Contributor
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 10,962
Likes: 29
From: Van Buren Arkansas
Wounded Warrior Escort '11
I would get under there and spray clean it all off. Its got a flash point of +382 degrees, I think was the number....don't hold me too that please. Your exhaust would probably be higher than that if the fluid gets onto the exhaust manifold.
Tech Contributor
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 10,962
Likes: 29
From: Van Buren Arkansas
Wounded Warrior Escort '11
Take it to a hand car wash and use a pressure-soap wash on it. Problem is getting under it where you need to be. The other option would be to find a place with a steam cleaner who will do it for you.
Corvette Stories
The Best of Corvette for Corvette Enthusiasts
Top 10 Most Expensive Corvettes Ever Sold on Bring A Trailer
Brett Foote
10 Things Every Corvette Owner Needs (2026 Edition)
Michael S. Palmer
8 Most "Only Corvette Owners Understand" Quirks and Problems
Pouria Savadkouei
10 Reasons the C6 Z06 is Still A Performance Benchmark After 20 Years
Joe Kucinski
How Much Horsepower Every Corvette Engine "LOST" in 1972
Joe Kucinski
Top 10 DOs and DON'Ts for Protecting Your Convertible Top!
Michael S. Palmer
Top 10 Most Explosive Corvettes Ever Made: Power-to-Weight Ratio Ranked!
Joe Kucinski
150 hp to 1,250 hp: Every Corvette Generation Compared by the Specs That Matter
Joe Kucinski
8 Coolest Corvette Pace Cars (and Replicas) of All Time
Verdad Gallardo
Tech Contributor
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 41,058
Likes: 9,820
From: Charlotte, NC (formerly Endicott, NY)
I wouldn't bother washing it. I have had power steering fluid dumped several times on my C5s. At speed it goes everywhere under the car and in the left front wheel well if the pump blows. The problem with power washing it is all of the electrical connections under the car that can get screwed up with a high pressure washing down.
Bill
Bill
