Thread: power steering pump failure

its the pump or the rack went bad. the pump is the cheaper and easier of the 2 to change.

my car the pump started to whine, then i lost power. put a new pump on, and i still had no power steering. it turned easier one way then the other, but you still had to muscle it. ended up putting a used rack in.

to change the pump, take the lines off the bottom first, take the pass side tire off, have a small pail to catch the fluid that will leak out the pump. the p/s pulley has a hole in it, you stick a socket in the hole to get the 2 bolts, the 12 and 6 o clock position. also keep a eye out for the knock sensor wire clipped to the back bottom of the pump. un clip it from the pump.

once the pump is off you need a p/s pulley puller, to take your pulley off, and then to put it on the new pump, you need this puller nothing else will work. its a GM p/s pulley puller, by name.

We have the the power steering pump on top and so are the lines however you have to access the tensioner to take off the belt if you look in the water pump thread you can see a quick how to to take off the belt with the YouTube link I posted and by the way Autozone has a pulley puller no need to bother with the gm stuff

i should have checked what section this is. why dont everyone have sig? at least put what your car is there.

Thanks for the input. So on my way home from work..1/4 mile from home the power steering came back. Parked in the garage and checked fluid reservoir and the fluid was circulating as it should. Is the pump on its way out?

oh i forgot to say this before, this is for any car, driving the car with no power steering will kill the rack. if the rack is not the original problem.

dont think i ever saw a p/s pump not work then work. most of the time they whine, louder and louder till they stop working.

The fluid is really dirty. So I think I'm gonna get it flushed over the weekend

ok im back, lol (06 GP GXP).

So im ready to do something about my problem that comes and goes. Its been about two weeks since it happened again. Today its about 84 F if that matters and it went out. Checked my fluid and it is circulating but no power steering. Belt doesn't make noise, pump doesn't make any noise outside the normal when under use. I don't feel any problems associated with a bad rack either (harder to steer to one side then the other, loose steering, wheel does not center itself on its own after making a turn, excessive pull to one side). Or could it be the magna steer (steer assist) thing on the rack?

I just would like to know if its a pump or rack problem. If not i will start with the pump and go from their.

time to get the alignment checked out if you ask me.

I thought of that. I got the alignment done at belle tire a week ago

thats a odd one, my guess is they checked out the whole front end, most do as they want your car to need more work. so they can fix it and make more money.

could be the rack, its a odd one for sure.