bureau13

Went for a drive last night, noticed some squeaking and a distinct lack of power assist. Checked it out and only two bolts holding on the power steering pulley, one of which had almost completely backed out. The belt had jumped off as well. Fixed that, tightened it down with just the two bolts, everything seemed fine then while doing other things, I happened to notice that the belt had slipped off the crank pulley. Huh? Fixed it, tensioned the belt a bit more, and it seems fine...but I do need to get the third pulley bolt. I wonder if having only two is causing them to come loose quickly? I never noticed a missing bolt before. Anyway, does anyone know what size bolt that is? Can I get it at Ace or Home Depot or is this something I need to get from our vendors? Maybe I need a "bolt kit" of commonly used sizes...I got that for the interior screws, etc.

bills928

Manual shows M6 X 12.... Ace hardware should have them .... Put a dab of blue theadlocker on all 3 bolts then torque them down.

Mrmerlin

also when you turn the wheel are you holding it at full lock?.
If so then release the wheel about an inch off the full turn position,
this will prevent damage to the power steering system .

NOTE doing this will not affect the turning radius

bureau13

M6x12, got it, thanks.

Interesting about not going full lock. I will definitely keep that in mind!

Stromius

Happened to me a few weeks ago. One sheered others got loose but belt stayed on. Thought it was way worse like cams. Easy fix luckily. Felt like a cliché Viagra commercial.
Best to follow advise to not go to full lock on steering wheel.

MFranke

I never go full lock and this happened on both my S4s. I wouldn't be surprised if they were thread locked at factory and over time the glue stops working. The bolts are the same as you find on the air pump hardware, iirc. If you deleted the air pump then just salvage those.

bureau13

I haven't deleted my air pump. Yet :-)

I picked up some at Ace...they actually didn't have M6x12, so I got M6x15 with washers and M6x10, to see which seems best as a temp solution....but I'm going to get the proper bolts anyway, just to be correct.

bills928

Clean the threaded holes good with brake cleaner before you apply the thread locker.