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No power steering at idle - help!

Tenacious_D

Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2007
Messages
6
Location
Tampa, FL
Corvette
2000 Pewter Convertible
I just had the steering rack out while replacing the harmonic balancer and now I have no power steering boost at idle. If I rev it up to 1500 or so I get some boost. The more I rev it, the more boost I get. But at idle it's REALLY hard to turn the wheel. The fluid level is normal and it's not making any weird sounds. I'm also not getting any errors on the DIC.

Is it just a matter of bleeding it thoroughly? I have turned the wheel back and forth many times, but have not applied a vacuum to the PS reservior. It just seems strange that there would be boost at 1500+ rpm but none at idle.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

Kevin
2000 Pewter Vert
 
Kevin-
I cannot help you with your problem, but welcome to the CAC! Someone with more technical skill will be along shortly.
 
Kevin-
I cannot help you with your problem, but welcome to the CAC! Someone with more technical skill will be along shortly.

Thank you!

I'm hoping someone here has seen this before and knows what could cause it. I re-bled the system today, as best I could (put the front end on stands and turned the wheel back and forth a bunch of times). Everything seems pretty normal when driving around, except when it's at a dead idle the steering effort is *extremely* high. As soon as I give it some throttle I can feel the boost come on and everything seems normal. :W

Kevin
 
Hey Kevin, when I have had to bleed a power steering system in the past it had to be done with the front wheels off the ground, turn the wheel slowly from lock to lock to get all of the air out of the system. Ensure that you don't let the fluid get too low, and sometimes it takes a looong time to get it all out. The fluid will sometimes get real bubbly with the air and you have to let it set for awhile. I hope this helps. God Bless, Steve
 
Thanks. That does help. I drove it to work today and it seems like it is a bit better, but still very heavy at idle speed. I will bleed it again tonight and do it more slowly and for longer. I feel fairly sure it's just air in the system, since I did lose a LOT of fluid out of the rack when I was wrestling it out of the way to get to the balancer. Seems to me if it was a blockage I wouldn't get any boost at all.

Kevin
 
Just an update and (I think) resolution to my issue. I bled the rack two times over the last couple days. After turning the wheel what must have been 300 times, I finally stopped getting bubbles in the reservior. Took a test drive and had some boost, but it still got really stiff after driving around the block. I let it sit overnight and then bled it again today. Got a few bubbles but they cleared up pretty quickly. I also put a wrench on the fluid fittings and gave them a little turn. One of them did move a little, so maybe it was allowing air to get in. At any rate, tonight the power steering is normal again.

Kevin
 
Just an update and (I think) resolution to my issue. I bled the rack two times over the last couple days. After turning the wheel what must have been 300 times, I finally stopped getting bubbles in the reservior. Took a test drive and had some boost, but it still got really stiff after driving around the block. I let it sit overnight and then bled it again today. Got a few bubbles but they cleared up pretty quickly. I also put a wrench on the fluid fittings and gave them a little turn. One of them did move a little, so maybe it was allowing air to get in. At any rate, tonight the power steering is normal again.

Kevin

That's great. I am glad that you got it fixed.
 
Outstanding, Vettes are great even when they are broke, but are absolutely amazing when running perfect. God Bless, Steve
 

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