Power Steering Issues

[Euge]

Been an intersting week with the 325 this week. First the battery dies from a serious dose of winter. So i replaced that with a new one (kindly supplied for fook all by my friend who works for the stealers. result!)

Then whilst out driving last night pulling upto some traffic lights i noticed the idle start to drop off and start to chase/ride a little... carried on and the problem wasnt going away, so gave it some beans down a local dual carriageway, only to find out the steering went mental heavy at the next island i met.. then being intermitently light then hard all the way home.

Got up this morning, checked the levels of the fluid and the belt tension.. Fluid was a little low, so topped it up with dexron II, bled they system by a serious amount of full lock turns of the wheel whilst keeping an eye on the level of the fluid and managing to get rid of the 'clicks' whilst turning the wheel. Took it out for a test drive. No better. Bollox. Heavy as fook and the idle is still a bit rough.

Looks like replacing the pump, which i gotta admit looks like its got some movement in it whilst being powered by the belt. Lovely messy job that gonna be! Anyone got a rough idea of cost on a decent second hand pump? would fire an advert up in the wanted section if it wasnt closed.. guess ill have to wait

[eko]

A decent secondhand pump is going to cost you about 20 quid posted.
As it happens ive got a couple here

[Euge]

eko to the rescue.. Top man!

[Euge]

Big up to eko once again.. arrived home this evening and neighbour popped round with a parcel which put a smile right on my face. massive thanks to eko tho, packing up and sending out the pump sharpish and dhl delivering it a whole 24hrs before it should of arrived... looking forward to fitting this on xmas day (my family are gonna love me )



May even do a little write up and get some pics for the wiki on draining, fitting the new pump and bleeding the power steering fluid system.

[Euge]

Cant beat working on your car on christmas day..

Got up this morning, opened me presents then got to work on the car about mid day.

Removed PAS pipes from pump and drained the pump, reservoir and with a few turns of the steering wheel the rack. roughly 0.7litres of fluid came out... hmmm interesting.

Then i battled to remove the old pump with some stubborn bolts. Belt taken off and the pump pulley rotates freely... hmmm interesting again. There was me thinking that may be my problem with the idle/creating extra duty on the engine.. ahh well, changing it is not a bad thing.

Im running out of daylight so packed up ready for fitting the new pump in the morning.

First thing ill be checking tomorrow with the car up in the air will be the steering rack gaiters to see if they have any fluid in them as i now suspect a rack problem? Still doesnt explain the dodgy idle... bloody cars, never straight forward

[Brianmoooore]

The poor idle is likely to be as a result of the duff battery screwing up the idle settings learnt by the ECU. A couple of days driving should sort it out.
When you've filled the steering up again and bled it, run it for a couple of minutes, then change the fluid again.
Fluid is cheap, steering racks and pumps aren't!
If there's any fluid inside the bellows on the rack, then it's scrap.

[Euge]

Nice one Brian just about to get to work on it. The idle does make sense now you put it like that.. Just the mystery to solve of where the 1l of fluid has dissapeared too and why much didnt come out of the rack once the lines were disconnected and the steering wheel turned. If it is the rack ill deffo be going the E36 route.

[Euge]

Pump on, fluid, filled, bled, flushed, refilled, bled.

Still a bit odd as im only getting about 0.7l out of the system when draining it.

Took for a test drive.. heavy steering cured so far. guessing my rack is a little suspect though. so maybe time for that long awaited z3 rack shortly. but this one should last me a little while.

Cheers Brian/eko

[eko]

No problem mate,glad it helped you out