MS911

Hi,

my '95 C4 Coupe has a whine and a 'belty', 'rubbing' feel when I go left lock on steering (not every time), only at slow speed like when reverse parking. In normal day to day driving I have no issues at all (I drive about 500 kms a week) .

Could this be the power steering belt or might my fluid be a bit old or low?

Should I continue to drive this until it becomes a problem or is it a REPLACE NOW BEFORE IT BREAKS AND YOU DRIVE OFF THE ROAD repair?

Car is going in for 120K kms service in two weeks and will it be OK to leave it til then?

Thanks in advance ...

geolab

forgive me if I do not understand quite well what the issue is.
Do you mean the whine happens when you lock turn the steering to the MAXIMUM left or right?
If this is so, and the car is cold, this is normal. But in the futur, you do not have to lock steer to the maximum. When cold, turn to the max gently and let off a bit of steering.
This does not imply that you shouldn't check the power steering fluid.

MS911

Sorry, to be clearer - the whine happens at about 5-10% off left lock. I tend not to pull steering wheel hard on lock.

geolab

First thing to say is that if the power assisted steering system fails, the steering becomes harder
but you could still drive the car (with both hands)
I would check the power steering fluid for a start.
Second- does the whine occur when car is NOT moving? or only while moving?
where does the whine sound come from?
Is the whine felt on the steering wheel? or not?

Mark in Baltimore

If you're at full lock, it's my understanding that doing so is very tough on the power steering pump. If you back off from full lock, does the whine go away?

ChicagoFX(993)

The above is true. On Audis you are not supposed to turn to full lock for more than a few seconds as damage to the power steering pump may occur. I would assume this is somewhat the same for Porsches. I have heard the same for other cars as well (BMW especially). Not sure why though...

black ice

I'll have to update you when I find out what's wrong with mine - tight left handers in my car at 8/10ths and above produces that whiney noise. Waiting for my mechanic to call me back on it...

viperbob

First thing is to check the fluid an dmake sure it is at the proper level. When they do get neat lock, they can make a whine. 8/10s though should not produce this.

MS911

Thanks for feedback, will check this. The symptom only shows at about 8/10 to left lock, I don't hold my steering at 10/10. If it's not Power Steerinf Fluid, I'll have my wrench look at it in 2 weeks when its having service.

black ice

I found out today that my problem was a pretty leaky rack. visible drops when I took off the front tray. Ugh! Previous owner had a "remanufactured" ZF installed for a pretty penny about 1.5 years ago. Looks like I am going to be upgrading my car to the manual rack option for a while - or just carrying around quarts of Dexron. What the heck.

MS911, good luck. I wonder what's up with yours.

FotoVeloce

Yeap, give that a looksie.

Mine would howl like a banshee when I turned left. Thought it was a tire rub or something.. turned out that the fluid was so low on a left turn it pulled it off the pump pick-up!

At least it's pretty easy to get too once you pull the airbox... good luck with it and hopefuly it's nothing more than something simple.

Caveman

On my old BMW I started getting noise on full lock when the power steering fluid level was low so definitely check that out first.

Cheers,

David

mamoroso

[QUOTE=black ice]I found out today that my problem was a pretty leaky rack. visible drops when I took off the front tray...QUOTE]


I had the same symptons as you describe (noise at nearly full lock). I checked the fluid level and it was low... So refilled but the problem would come back.

I had the car checked and it was a leaky rack. $1,200 later the problem was fixed.

Good luck!