As some of you may recall, last winter on a cold morning, (in the 30s), I had a growling from my PS pump. No visible leaks on the outside. I added fluid and all was fine and it never growled again. This morning, I noticed that my steering was heavier than normal (no, it was not cold - it was 73° at 8am). I drove onto work. I had intentions of checking the fluid when I left, but forgot, but was quickly reminded when I started the car and went to turn to wheel and pull out and the steering wheel was even harder to turn and I heard some growling from the pump. The fluid looked a little low, but not much. I went ahead and poured in more fluid and it helped some, but now its full and the steering is still "heavy", or much heavier that normal. Growling stopped though.

Now my question is- is the pump going out, air in the lines, or? Also, the fluid is obviously leaking somewhere and I have heard that some of these will leak internally and a hose needs to be bypassed. How hard is this to do and does anyone have detailed step by step instructions? Would the internal leak cause the steering to be heavy, even if the fluid is full?

Tons of questions I know, but I am getting panicky because I am supposed to drive my grandmother to South Carolina in this car next weekend and its 199 miles away! I would hate to have to rent a car for 3 days. BTW - its a 91' LS400.

Help please! Thanks.

 

Take off the engine undercover and check the lines to see if you can find the leak. The heaviness of the steering may just be old fluid, I would flush the fluid before changing anything other than the part that is leaking.

 

Thanks. Well, there are no leaks outside of the system... no drips under the car ever, which is why it is strange.

I refilled it and it steers fine today, so I am not sure if its a old fluid problem, but I will drain out the old fluid and refill with new... perhaps some with some stop leak?

 

There might be air in the system. I would flush the steering system before you start replacing parts.

 

Unless there's a huge leak, there won't be drips under the car because of the engine undercover. Don't ever use that stop leak stuff, it only gums things up.

 

Thanks for the replies. How do you flush the fluid out?

 

http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/steering/psflush.html

Be careful when you crank the engine to cycle the fluid, it's under a lot of pressure and can make a real mess.