Power Steering

[Mob]

Been having an issue lately with my power steering. I have mass amounts of ATF pouring out at idle when I move the wheel. None of the lines going along the rack are visibly leaking, the banjo fitting going into the side of the pump is dry, the pump itself is dry the only place I visibly see liquid in power steering related areas is at the bottom of the hose from the resevoir to the pump and a little at the top of the same hose. From what I understand it isn't under any pressure and for the ammount dropping if it was that hose, Id think it would be a bit messier. Leak isn't as bad when amount of ATF has dropped to about half in the resevoir...eh also noticeable amout of air (bubbles etc.) Really unsure where to go from here.

Also to be completely ass backwards, heres the backstory. Three weeks back (been back up at campus for soph year) I was driving the car most of a nice summer day with no issues. Go to a friends house, and after a bit of indecision on who was driving, backed up in a pretty tight radius. Parked the car, and went and ate with said friends. When I get back, I see a small puddle of ATF at the foot of his driveway. From that is a trail of splotches to my car. Back it up and sure enough, pool of it underneath the passenger side. Start the car, audible buzzing from the pump and can physically feel shuddering through the steering wheel (not explained very well.)

No idea what happened as the car had been fine for a month prior with the new engine and then out of the blue...power steering screws up.

Any thoughts, commentary, or "Hey stupid..." ideas are welcome.

 

[turbomk3]

same thing happened to me after my rebuild, i just left it alone and drive it like that then sold my supra. you dont need powerstearing, you have muscles dont you mob?

 

[Mob]

Its more the assload of ATF deposited under the car everywhere I go.

 

[simpsons7s]

my guess is that the power steering resevior cap is leaking. check the seal of the cap. Mine was doing the same till I tightened the hose clamps and replaced the cap. The shuddering that you had was probably because you were low on fluid and your pump was sucking air. Anyway good luck

 

[Blackmk3]

i had the same with mine on the maiden test drive spent 2hrs fixing the powersteering line...it burst coming back from the cooler to the resoviour.

id recomend pulling off all the air intake pipes and having a good look to see the leak....or soon enough youl be replacing your pump to..

 

[johnathan1]

I have had the same problem. For me, it turned out to be the short rubber hose coming from the bottom of the reservoir, it has a million tiny cracks in it, and was leaking and sucking in air. I replaced it with a new Toyota hose (No auto parts stores will have anything that comes close to fitting/working) and everything was good again. Except now it's leaking from the passenger side boot. :aigo:

 

[Mob]

Figures eh? Everytime I fix one leak, another starts. Anywho, Im really hoping its the hose you mentioned Jonathan. I'll have to mess around with it more when I get a longer break from school

Keep any idea's coming and thanks to those who have already thrown in their 2 cents.

 

[MKIIINA]

check to see if your resivor is allowing fluid to freely flow to the pump and back. theres a screen in there that tends to get blocked/clogged starving and also pushing air into rack and fluid out over the resivor creating a "leak". mine did that until we swapped out the resivor and now i run an NA resivor after converting to ffim.

 

[suprashy]

check to see if your resivor is allowing fluid to freely flow to the pump and back. theres a screen in there that tends to get blocked/clogged starving and also pushing air into rack and fluid out over the resivor creating a "leak". mine did that until we swapped out the resivor and now i run an NA resivor after converting to ffim.

Werd! Clean it out good with WD-40, hold it upto the sky, and you should be able to see the nice mesh filter. May also wanna bleed the system. HTH!