Exotic Car

How does one change the power steering belt? Do you need to reomove the pump? Having trouble removing the top right spark plug wire from the plug. Do I need to remove the power steering pump?

Jeff 993TT

Look at this site: http://p-car.com/diy/sparkplug/

You do not need to remove the PS pump. It's a PITA to get to that last plug, but not really a big deal after you've done it once before and know the system.

There's also great info in the shop manuals.. What's that you say? Your working on your car without a copy of the shop manuals???

therossinator

is it possible to check the belt without removing anything? I saw this picture and noticed a hole in the rear side between each pulley, forward of the spark plug.

boman993

The belt has a "window" to it exactly where you see the opening. You should be able to see it from the top if you remove the intake box.

mpruden

Worst case, you can remove the entire plastic cover if you have to. It's not easy, but then you can get a real good look at it.

therossinator

I took a look and could see a sliver of the belt. It seems to be turning when the engine is on. What's the next step in determining a loss of power to the power steering? I am not leaking fluid either, BTW.

IainM

is it making any noises? If the pump side was bad you hear it surely.

One of the seals inside the rack? Is there a seal between high pressure input and return?

kjr914

My belt going bad was signaled by a loud (disturbing) thunking at full lock on the steering wheel, and it drained the fluid, without leaking it anywhere...IIRC. The belt had some missing belt teeth. But I had no change in the power steering, other than the thunking at lock...

Did you check the fluid level and remove the front under plastic to make sure it wasn't puddling up there?

Mike J

I have replaced a pile of these, both with the engine in and out, and have not found a defective belt yet. Some were worn, but not ready to split (unlike the distributor belts I have seen..)

I see that Keith found some missing teeth on his car, which is interesting.

It is a bit of a bear to replace this belt, but its easier with a lift, but still cramped. Ideally, you should only have to loosen the pump on its mount by removing the bolts on the belt side, that would allow you to tilt the pump up to fit the new belt on, but unfortunately the belt itself is in the way to tighten those bolts. Clearly a design not allowing for servicing!

Cheers,

Mike

therossinator

It sounds like the next step is to pull the rack to make sure the seals are good, which involves about $30 of Pentosin CHF202. Before I flush that, is there any way to verify high pressure within the line?

Mike J

Not sure why you are doing that - you can check the seals by visually looking at the rack - no leaks, seals are good.

Does your power steering work? Can the wheels be turned relatively easily while the car is stopped? (try doing it with the engine off to see what that feels like - heavy!).

I have not flushed the fluid by removing the lines on the rack - but have thought about it. Is that your intention?

Cheers

MIke

therossinator

I rebuilt my rack a couple months ago. The steering was great, but now it is incredably heavy and a stark differnece to what it was just last week. What changed? Well I took it to get an alignment and when I drove it home the tie rod came unscrewed. Everything seemed fine leaving the dealership and got worse throughout the 350 mile drive home. When I screwed the tie rod back into the the rack, the steering felt like there was no power. Its a little harder to notice something like that when your tie rod is completly disconnected. I'm not trying to point fingers or anything, I'm just trying to figure out whats wrong.

If I were to remove the rack to take apart and investigate, that would likely cause me to lose the 1.5 qts that are already in the system. I'm not talking about a simple leak, I'm thinking there might be a catastrophis failure of a seal within, and not necessarally one that seals the inside of the rack from the outside of the rack. There is no indication other than the lack of power assistance and a slight hiss if the wheel is being turned. No noise, no obvious leaks.

Mike J

Ahh, got it, thanks!

I wonder if the alignment guys put a lot of twist on the rack itself when adjusting things? That twisting could have screwed up something internally in the rack causing binding?

I hope that you got back to the alignment shop and discussed why the tie rod disconnected - assuming you put it on correctly when rebuilding, that is another pointer to some rotational force being put on the rack itself. I have not taken one apart (yet), are their guides or bushings that keep the rack from twisting?

Anyways, it does sound like a disassembly is required - please get back to the forum when you are into it and find the issue, it would be good to know.

Best of luck!

Cheers,

Mike

therossinator

Where does this seal come from?

therossinator

It is the one that is inside the rack (bar that the tie rods acre into) and separates the fluid that pushes the reach to one side or the other. New brown o ring and blue square ring on the way.