today i was comming home and about a block from my house suddenly i had power steering. it was kinda jumping on and off but deffenitly there. i pulled in the garage and looked in the resovoire with the engine running and there is bubbling comming from the right side inside the tank. it looks like its just pumping straight air out of the pump then into the tank. there isnt really any foam. but just a bunch of large bubbles. so does that mean i have an air leak somewere.

 

This means the air is being slowly bled out of the system/pump.

The pump may just be having trouble catching prime or it could be bad. If the pickup line had a hole in it and your pump was working you would get a definite "foam" bubbling out of the tank and onto the headers. Just a few bubbles is the air in the system coming out.

 

i put more fluid in the tank. now there is foam there. as i dumped the fluid it it jsut drank it up real fast and i heard the groan form the pump but then it just started foaming. while i was under the car last night i noticed a whole crap load of slime and junk all over the place that i traced back to the fluid tank. its all over the 2 hoses comming out from the bottom of it. and also all over the bottom of my engine and steering rack. i guess im going to have to go and see if i can find were air is leaking out... or in... why would there be air in the system though. shouldnt it be free of air?

 

Hey Brett I've seen this problem several times before.
Open your hood and look along the right side of your engine (pass) where the bottom radiator hose passes close to the chassis apron (frame).
Under the reservoir follow the power steering hose in that area, it's probably being colapsed by being sqeezed shut (flattened) between the radiator hose and the frame apron.
The problem goes away when the car is allowed to cool for a while because the hose regains rigidity and only becomes flexible enough to be squeezed flat when it gets hot and supple.
The factory hose has a spiral reinforcement to protect the hose from expansion and compression, is yours equiped with this factory hose or was it replaced with an alternative at some point..?
Either way, replacement or simply rerouting of this hose should solve your problem..

Cheers

 

well im not sure what happened. i guess it jsut needed some time. now im wondering if i needed that 50$ pump afterall. i gave it some stuff to drink and for a little while it still WHAAAAAAA at me but i was going out to dinner with ym girlfriend (how much luckier of a time could it have been) and i pulled out of the driveway and went to turn and i was shocked..... nothing... and i had steering.... i almost started crying (not really). ive been freaking out all day and it just fixed itself. now down to illinois tomarrow to pick up some fuchs with the centers painted garnet red. i hope they look nice!

 

The old fluid went somewhere and it probably won't be long before the reservoir is empty again. Where the hoses attach to the reservoir is a good place to look for leaks, the pump can also leak. Either of these will cause the fluid to cover the underside of the car.