Hello all today I was driving the Vette and all of a sudden my steering got hard no noise nothing just real hard to turn. I had a new rack done about 12k miles ago now I wonder if the pump went bad any advise as what to check for. Please post up if you can help TIA.


Dale

 

come on Guys a little help weather is great and cant drive the vette any idea's why it is so hard to turn. Can the pump be out, clogged lines has new rack in it so hope fully thats not bad

Dale

 

found the issue the P.S. res. is cracked and sucking air ordered a new one will get back in running in 2 days

 

 

Hey T how you doing Brother lets get together soon

Pops

 

must of made a mess; never seen a bad res.

 

The reservoir only holds fluid and if it cracked, it would just leak out and create a huge mess as Steve mentioned. I suspect you have something else wrong. Possible pump issue as you mentioned but I rarely hear of one having problems. The reservoir is not under pressure...fyi

 

the crack is on the front side top above fluid line I think it is sucking air IDK I ordered a new one got it yesterday will install it today. Will see what happens I dont see any fluid leaking anywhere and it doesn't make any noise at all.

Dale

 

any updates??? im suspecting mine might have a proble. ps leaks are a pita to track down.

 

I put a new res. in and it works fine it has a Hair line crack around the top no idea how it happened but was sucking air when I released cap it had air pressure cap went whoosh.

Pops

 

Very interesting. I need to do some reading then as I didn't think it was a pressurized item. Thanks for letting us know and happy you are driving again.

 

Everything that I quickly read online only points to issues with the pump itself or leaks in the seals on the rack, allowing it to suck in air which ends up in the reservoir. I'm suspecting the cracked tank was a result of one of these things. Hopefully someone in here who knows the system better will give a better opinion. Here is a copy out of one area that I found online and know that I'm not sure about the validiity:

•Overfilling of the reservoir- If one does not pay attention to the mark up to which the fluid is to be filled in the reservoir, one can overfill the reservoir which may leak and cause damage to the other components in which it comes in contact. Besides, when the liquid is cool, its level appears lower, but as it heats up, the level rises, so it is essential that fluid is filled up to the correct mark as explained in the owner’s manual.
•Trapped air in the reservoir- If the air is trapped inside the reservoir, it may result in formation of the bubbles and as they form, they may push the fluid and result in the overflow of the fluid from the reservoir.
•Pressure in the tank- If the pressure in the tank increases which might be due to faulty power steering pump, then it may cause overflow of the reservoir. The pump contains a pressure relief valve which regulates the pressure of the fluid and if there is malfunctioning in this system, it may lead to escalation of pressure in the tank resulting in overflow of fluid from the power steering reservoir.

 

more; various online things suggest simply trapped air in the system, sucking air past seals, bad relief valve on the pump itself and so on. I believe that you should not have a pressurized tank. You might wish to take the lid off or losen it, rotate the steering back and forth from lock to lock several times to insure there's no air trapped, then seal it up again. Be careful to not have too much fluid in there when you do this as you could have it all over the place but you also don't want too little fluid therefore sucking in more air. Probably two people to do the job and one looking at the reservoir needs safety goggles on first.