bebbetufs

Before my car broke down a few years ago I got a new rebuilt PS rack. I only drove the car a short distance with this rack back in 2010 before my engine went, but in that short distance the new reservoir was twice filled with minute metal shavings, almost like glitter. There was also a thin layer of metal sludge on top of the white disc in the bottom of the reservoir. I only saw dust, no filings or chips of any size.

What is most likely to cause this? the new rack or the pump? The rack is rebuilt from Auto Zone and has a lifetime warranty, the pump has done 62K miles.

bebbetufs

Ok. So I split the pump but I can't find any visible damage to the vanes. There is a lot of axial play in the shaft though, only slight radial play. Is this amount of play normal or would you consider this a busted pump?

Video of axial play.

Mangonesailor

I too had glitter in my PS reservoir when I got my car about 2 yrs ago. I emptied and refilled it with fresh fluid when I noticed. Last weekend I drained and refilled it again, then opted to fix the PS leak. So I drained it, sprayed inside with brake cleaner, "fixed" the leak, refilled, started the car and realized it was sucking air, drained it and replaced crap hose, filled it again, and let it run for about 10min. I can see to the bottom of the reservoir and there are no more glittery things in my fluid. The wear you're seeing is possibly just normal wear from miles and miles of the pump recirculating. It's just how our engines will put a very tiny bit of metal in the oil from the rings... but we change our oil every 3-5kmi... so we'll never notice it. On that note, how often have you changed your PS fluid?

I'm curious to know what the filter media is so that I know what it actually catches. I'm tempted to install a temporary oil filter inline with the system and drive the car around to purge the system of junk. I also need to do this on my truck since even after the 10th time I refilled it and started it the fluid turns almost black within a minute.

bebbetufs

Thanks for your feedback.
There is no way this is from years of running. The fluid was fresh. pump was flushed, reservoir was new and the rack was completely rebuilt and pressure tested by AutoZone. The only thing I did not renew was the return line with the cooling loop.

Within 500km of driving there was glitter in the fluid. Flushed the fluid and cleaned out the reservoir. Another 500km and the same amount of glitter was there. Then the engine let go due to the turbo shop forgetting to locktite the shaft-nut. Since then the car has been in bits, so I haven't been able to troubleshoot further.

Mangonesailor

Slap an oil filter kit in the loop and drive it. Remove it and drive it some more to see how much glitter you have then.

bebbetufs

Thanks for the tip, I'll try that if I can't sort this out by the time my car is back together again. You see, my engine is in bits and it will be a while before the car is ready. If the glitter comes from the rack I would like to send it back to the US now. That way I can get a good one in time for bolting everyting back toghether.