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Power steering pump finished?

jeffmills69

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The noise only happens in full lock, in the vid it goes from full clockwise - full anticlockwise, the power steering reservoir has also raised above the max cold line and doesn't change when it warms up, the liquid does smell burnt but putting it on white paper towel it looks a nice clear red although smells burnt.

If I do need to flush the fluid either way is ATF LV safe to use? I mean it is stated as a replacement for DEXRON VI on the bottle but better to be safe than sorry ;)

I also noticed RPM drops heaps and my god awful fuel trims (-20%) started correcting while the steering wheel was turning.. what relevance does the power steering have to fuel trims?
 

vr304

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Could try replacing the fluid but to me that pump sounds stuffed, they are a common thing to go on Commodores as for your fuel trims they are probably just trying to compensate for the extra load coming on the engine when your turning the wheels full lock
 

jeffmills69

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Could try replacing the fluid but to me that pump sounds stuffed, they are a common thing to go on Commodores as for your fuel trims they are probably just trying to compensate for the extra load coming on the engine when your turning the wheels full lock

Sweet, Is the best option to just go for an OEM replacement and buy a pulley puller and reuse the pulley rather than buy an aftermarket version with a new pulley for around the same price?
 

Skylarking

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You shouldn’t be holding the steering wheel so that the steering system is held on its stops as that puts a huge load on the hydraulic system and causes problems. Doing so is being mechanically unsympathetic.

Simply wind back the steering wheel 5 minutes and such load is removed, the oil isn’t overheated by being force through a bypass valve and the pump isn’t under anywhere near as much of a load... Turning circle is hardly impacted by doing such...

By now, it may be that the steering pump needs a rebuild but VE being relatively new, not sure if they sell rebuild kits for these simple hydraulic pumps....

Many cars also have a pressure switch in both the steering hydraulics and aircon lines to signal when those system place a load on the engine. In such cases the ecu can kick in some extra revs on idle so that the engine doesn’t stall... Don’t know if VE has such smarts but I’d expect it IS smart enough to know what loads are applied to the engine and thus adjust idle speed up... STFT are probably just to cope with a high load and low RPM from aircon and steering if revs aren’t being adjusted for some reason... I’m sure it’s all in the workshop manual but I don’t have one for VE so I’m guessing...
 

jeffmills69

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You shouldn’t be holding the steering wheel so that the steering system is held on its stops as that puts a huge load on the hydraulic system and causes problems. Doing so is being mechanically unsympathetic.

Simply wind back the steering wheel 5 minutes and such load is removed, the oil isn’t overheated by being force through a bypass valve and the pump isn’t under anywhere near as much of a load... Turning circle is hardly impacted by doing such...

By now, it may be that the steering pump needs a rebuild but VE being relatively new, not sure if they sell rebuild kits for these simple hydraulic pumps....

Many cars also have a pressure switch in both the steering hydraulics and aircon lines to signal when those system place a load on the engine. In such cases the ecu can kick in some extra revs on idle so that the engine doesn’t stall... Don’t know if VE has such smarts but I’d expect it IS smart enough to know what loads are applied to the engine and thus adjust idle speed up... STFT are probably just to cope with a high load and low RPM from aircon and steering if revs aren’t being adjusted for some reason... I’m sure it’s all in the workshop manual but I don’t have one for VE so I’m guessing...

Only reason I was holding it full lock was to suss ball joints/tie rods etc and noticed the noise, should note I actually haven't had any issues with steering and such just never heard the noise before so thought I'd find out and see if anything was actually wrong but cheers for the info
 

Skylarking

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Only reason I was holding it full lock was to suss ball joints/tie rods etc and noticed the noise, should note I actually haven't had any issues with steering and such just never heard the noise before so thought I'd find out and see if anything was actually wrong but cheers for the info
Ok, good you have some mechanical sympathy for the car :cool:

If the pump doesn’t make any noise in normal use as you said, I’d only be concerned about the burnt smelling oil which I’d replace. I don’t know what’s spec’ed for the VE so I’d have to say referee to the book. You could also ring the technical help line (listed on the oil bottle) and ask them if the oil you have can be used in place of the oil recommended by the manufacturer... These tech lines are usually quite good and the person will tell you if you can (and even if it’s overkill price wise as the oil is too good for a simple power steering)....

In the old days, when everything was rebuildable, workshop manuals had min and max pressures stated for hydraulic steering systems. As such they had test procedures to determin if something actually needed rebuilding... These days the manufacturers would prefer we buy a new car when the fuel tank is about to run dry :eek: (sarcasm) :p
 
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