Hi everyone,

I was out the door this morning and as I was pulling out of my driveway, I noticed that my 2002 disco was harder to steer than normal. my first thought was that it was cold(last night was the coldest night of the season so far) and that it needed to warm up. on the way down to school it got better, but on my way home it was no better. I got home and checked the power steering fluid and it was full, no leaks and everything from the gear box to the wheels was good in terms of steering. I'm not quite sure what the problem is. Last night, it was working perfectly. This morning, it isn't. Is it possible that there is an air bubble in the hydraulic line or perhaps a block? I hope the gear box isn't going. Any help?

-Michael

 

How many miles on your truck, when did you last service your p/s fluid?

 

92,629 miles. I was planning on doing it tomorrow since it's my first day off. I took it around the block tonight to get everything warmed up(not that it should matter) and then brought it back to my house and turned the steering wheel to it's limits. You should be able to hear the power steeing pump kick in and the rpm's drop when you turn the wheel to its limits but I didn't hear any type power steering pump sound. is it possible that the power steering fluid becomes too thick for hte pump to push?

 

If you want to learn how to flush it, PM me your tele number and I'll walk you thru it.

 

cool, thanks for your help, Mike.

It's my only means of travel at the moment(way too cold to take my bonneville out with tonight's conditions). Could I cause severe damage to the pump by driving it in its present condition? And secondly, what is the probability that the fluid is the culprit? If it is, I'll go to autozone or the like tonight to get the fluid and change it. other wise, I might wait for tomorrow

 

also, for what it's worth, I looked at the driveshaft b/c I've been hearing stories of the stock ones destroying t-cases, etc and I have greasable u-joints at both ends

 

Go and buy a couple of quarts of power steering fluid and a $5 fluid hand pump, suck out as much of the old power steering fluid as you can, refill the resevoir.
Drive it for a day and then repeat.
You are then done changing your power steering fluid.
Use a name brand of power steering fluid, full synthetic if youcan get it, if not no big deal.

 

i went to walmart tonight and got 2 quarts of fluid and a bottle of lucas steering fluid and a turkey baster(didn't want to use my parent's with thanksgiving coming up) and emptied the the contents from the ps container and then filled it up again with the new fluid. I then turned the car on, turned the wheel from limit to limit and back again. turned the car off, emptied some of ps fluid and added some of the lucas fluid. Drove it around the block, came back and emptied the contents again, filled it back up with new ps fluid and some more of the lucas fluid and drove it around the block again. then I emptied some of it from the ps container, added a majority of bottle of the lucas fluid, then filled it back up to the max line with new ps fluid. I then took it out on the road for about a mile to get everything flowing and came back. It was too cold to be outside for any longer.

The problem still exists, though, not as terribly bad. I'm hoping that it will gradually get better(I was thinking/hoping it'd be an immediate fix).

On a side note, the wobble I got in the steering wheel bw 45-50 no longer seems to be there. We'll see tomorrow if the fluid change cured this.

 

after driving it today, the steering has gotten better, but still not where it was before this started. I'm thinking it's 50% easier to turn now. Could there be another problem or should I try the fluid flush again tomorrow

 

How about the 2 u-joints in the double cardon housing, thoise are the ones to be worried about.

As for the p/s fluids, buy some sort of a cheap hand pump, 3 quarts of Valoline's synthetic p/s fluid if you can find it and a bottle of Lucas p/s additive, then give me a shout before you start the flush.