My mistake? how to fix it

[Rahul Jones]

Hey guys,

My Kia had a hard leaky power steering suction hose (reservoir to the pump) which I replaced and while replacing the hose kept breaking into tiny bits and went inside the pump. I removed whatever I saw thinking that’s all it went but now the steering is very tight to drive. I used Valvoline MaxLife ATF as it needed dexron-3 and I did bleed the system turning the steering lock to lock 3-4 times.

Do you guys think I should bleed again? Or the pump is faulty? :unsure:

Topic

[michael]

I would say best case scenario you just have air in the system and it couldn’t hurt to bleed it more. Hopefully all the pieces were removed from inside the pump. Hydraulic systems can be funny sometimes and take a few times to fully bleed. Just be careful air in a power steering system can cause damage to the pump.

[Rahul Jones]

I tried bleeding again and it did puke some fluid out but the steering is still tight. Also, my shoulder hurts now. To my surprise the pump doesn’t make any noise after the first bleeding I did.

[twiggy]

There might be a screen at the bottom of the power steering reservoir that may have caught all that debris. You should check/clean if it is clogged up.

[michael]

You wouldn’t happen to have a vacuum pump would you? and would your vehicle happen to have a bleed screw on the rack? +1 to checking for a screen in the reservoir.

[redfury]

Is it hard to turn no matter what direction you turn, or just one direction? It’s a hydraulic circuit, and if anything got into it and is blocking a path, it could cause issues. You might want to run the vehicle with the cap open and watch the fluid flow with someone turning the wheels.

To make it easier, put both sets of wheels on 2 pieces of cardboard. The cardboard will allow the tires to rotate freely without having to jack the front end up.

Generally, you want to bleed the system without running the engine. Turn the wheel lock to lock a couple of dozen times and then turn the engine on briefly to run the pump a little, then turn off and repeat. Then run the engine and operate the wheel and see how it feels/sounds.

[Rahul Jones]

There is no screen in the reservoir. All I could find is there is a restriction somewhere which is causing the fluid to return back to the reservoir and overflow. With the return line removed there is no flow coming from there. Maybe only if I had compressed air in the house I might have been able to clear it out. I will probably take it to my buddy’s garage for further work. Thanks everyone. 🙂

[Author]

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