OK guys, I'm here trying to help out my parents who own a 2000 DiscoII, they aren't very mechanically inclined and I'm not real familiar with LandRovers, I have GTO and I'm used to sports cars... Any way, they started it up the other morning and it was making a horrible screaching sound that got even worse when the steering wheel was turned, obviously it seems the steering pump has gone bad, my question is what is a reasonable repair cost for something like this. They have taken it to the local garage that I have repeatedly tried to get them to stop going to, and the garage says the pump as well the the "steering gearbox" need to be replaced for a grand total of $2200. I'm pretty knowledgable about cars in general and do all the maintenance and repair on my car myself, and this just sounds outrageous, if any one can give me some input on this before my parents authorize this work I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance
Kirk

 

Kirk,
How many miles on the truck, when was the steering fluid changed last? Tell your parents not to do anything till we talk some more.

Mike

 

Mike, I believe it has approx 110,000 miles and if I remember correctly the steering fluid was changed along with all other fluids before they bought it with 65,000. The first thing the garage tried was bleeding the system and refilling with new fluid, their thought was that some air was in the system, but that didn't fix it and now they are saying all this stuff needs to be replaced. I just think that the price is ridiculous, I could do custom heads, cam, and intake on my car for that [&:]

 

You might consider changing the fluid usuing synthetic fluid and a bottle of Lucas power steering additive, may free up the pump valves.
That fluid needs to be changed every 20 to 30,000 miles or it will cause problems.
There is alos a great shop to get used parts from with a guarantee if you are interested.
Mike

 

Thanks for the input Mike, do you think there are any other possibilities? While I wouldn't trust this garage with my own car my dad has been taking his cars there for 15yrs to the same mechanic, and I think they are competent enough to change the fluid properly and it didn't help any. The screaching sound is pretty bad, it's well beyond what I would associate with just needing to change the fluid. I guess my real problem with this is the price they are wanting to charge and the "need" to replace the steering "gear box" along with the pump. Their reason for this is that "if one needs to be replaced most likely the other has been damaged as well" as I said I'm not familiar with LandRover parts and service, is this "steering gear box" even a real part, they said it's part of the steering column? I know the garage has been in contact with the LandRover dealership here in the area and the LR dealer also thought changing the fluid was the first logical step.

 

I don't buy the idea that both need to be replaced. How does the truck drive other then the noise?
Here is that link I was telling you about for used parts.
http://www.roverlandparts.com/index....TS&Category=87
Mike

 

Thanks for the link Mike, are these used parts rebuilt/refurbished and are they reliable? Those prices are less than half what the garage is wanting to charge for parts. I haven't been able to drive it since they took it to get looked at, I know they drove it to the garage and other than the noise I think it still drove OK. I'm still wondering what this steering gearbox is that they are talking about and why it would have been damaged if the pump went bad?

 

I realize I'm responding to an old thread but I thought I'd add my two cents to aid someone's research into power steering problems in the future...

I just had a similar problem this week with my '02 Discovery, my steering had become exceptionally tight and was very hard to turn the wheel around corners. At high speeds, like on the highway,even the slightestcurve in the roadmade it verydifficult toturn the wheel far enough. My mechanic (who I've been with through a couple BMW's and Land Rovers) was fairly sure it wasthe power steering pump, although he saidit could be the steering gearbox instead.He doesn'tfeel that "when one goes the other one goes",it's just that it'simpossibleto tell which part isbad without replacing one and seeing if it works. We decided to try the steering pump first after the helpful folks at Atlantic British told us they ship a whole bunch of power steering pumps but not so many steering gearboxes, which led us to believe that Land Rover Discoverys seem to mainly have trouble with the pumps. That did the trick for mine...

Anyway, the price quoted previously in this thread seems slightly highaccording to what I was quoted, but not horrible... I was quoted $485 for the steering pump (installed and with fluid), $975if I had to also dothe gearbox (installed and with fluid)...