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Power steering contamination 1991 L98 Coupe

Coupe de jour

Active member
Joined
Nov 16, 2003
Messages
26
Location
Ojai, Ca.
Corvette
1991 Red Coupe L98
I recently purchased a 91 L98 Coupe and took it in to my suspension and brake shop to have it checked over and the fluids flushed. The shop, who I have been doing business with for years and consider to be very reputable showed me a sample of some debris they found in the power steering system. It looks like rubber pieces and they believe that it is coming from the inside of one of the hoses. They also said that there is no way to get it out and that I need to replace the pump, rack, and hoses to insure that my pwoer steering is safe and reliable. I have never heard of this happening before so I was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience with there car and what can be done to prevent it from happening.

Thanks
 
I have not seen this discussed before. I don't think this is a common problem. However, I have heard that some C4's do have power steering rack problems at higher mileages.

What I would do is have your shop flush as much crud from the system as possible after changing all of the hoses. I am assuming that you did not feel any problems with the power steering before the shop noticed this problem. If you think about it, you have nothing to loose. The worst that can happen is you do some damage and you need to repalce the hoses, rack, and pump. That is exactly what the shop wants to do anyway so you are the same off. But a flush may just do the trick, assuming you change out the hoses before the flush.

They can disconnect the return hose at the pump and plug the pump fitting, fill the pump receiver with oil, place the open end of the return hose form the rack in a glass jar, run the engine, and turn the rack from full left to full right several times. When the oil is out of the pump receiver, fill it again until the oil is clean. Then, reconnect the return hose at the pump, fill with oil, and give it the ole test drive.

Radar :) :beer
 
Coupe de jour said:
They also said that there is no way to get it (crud from inside hoses) out and that I need to replace the pump, rack, and hoses to insure that my power steering is safe and reliable.

I would have to agree with the shop. Everything needs to be replaced.

However, do give the flush a try and see if it will work, you really don't have anything to lose. Certainly change the hoses out of there.
I don't think the ps will fail catastrophically or all at once so you should have some warning indicaters when/if it is on its' way out.

The reason why I agreed with the shop is that my ps had gone through a flooded stream and we got small particals of sand inside the system. We tried flushing and replacing part-at-a-time...but the problem did not fix until I replaced ALL ps items at the same time.

Give the flush a try, you may get lucky!
Heidi
 
Thank you for the input. I agree with both of your observations. The flush sounds like a no risk event so I'll try that first.
 
On mine the discolouration was from the rack&pinion being on the way out.
 

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