power steering fault

[scott j]

struggling with this one,

evertime i drive my car for a long period of time or generaly take it down a few tight lanes, i cum back to find sum of my power sterring fluid has come out the reservoir,

and each tiem i start my car up and everything is cold, it makes sum weird noises from the rack/pump as if its got air locked or to some similar description,

is there any common faults with the o.e power steering setup ona williams one, or has anyone come across this before?

many thanks

[Justin..]

its a common occurance with the pas on the 2.0 & 1.8. might just need bleeding, at worst a new pump. try an dget some Slick 50 power steering treatment , made mine a hell of a lot more quite. problem with fluid is it expands when gets hot so over spils. or you get an air lock and the fluid had no where to go.

some people have made a catch tank for pas fluid by putting a nipple on the filler cap and running a tube to the scuttle where it feeds into a bottle to save mess.

[cliokiz]

All the valvers/hybrids i've owned have always had wet caps on the power steering reservoir after a drive.

It's just spitting out fluid that it doesn't want.

On my latest valver the cap was wet as normal, until i took it on a track day and it spat out rather a large amount of fluid.

Ever since then the cap has been bone dry even after spirited driving and the fluid level seems to be perfect, you can still see the fluid in the neck of the PS reservoir but it's probably slightly less than the max mark.

Don't know if that helps, lol.

[titcharoony]

mine makes a sssssshhhhh noise when going round corners, left or right, pisses me off - anything i can do?

[G33R7]

pas pump, hard/expensive job.

[cliokiz]

Not if you take the engine out it isn't.

[cliokiz]

Well, not hard, but still expensive, lol, if you get a garage to do it.

[Coops]

worn pump will cause excessive pssshhhhhh noises, as will worn seals in the rack itself

its normal for them to chuck some fluid, as said best bet is to use a catch tank, saves mess and can just pop fluid back in periodically

to bleed, undo cap, turn on engine and turn wheel lock to lock several times and continue to do so till either fluid stops emitting blubbles or stops dropping level in the tank, top up as necessary

[andreas395]

worn pump will cause excessive pssshhhhhh noises, as will worn seals in the rack itself

its normal for them to chuck some fluid, as said best bet is to use a catch tank, saves mess and can just pop fluid back in periodically

to bleed, undo cap, turn on engine and turn wheel lock to lock several times and continue to do so till either fluid stops emitting blubbles or stops dropping level in the tank, top up as necessary

dont tell me an other thing wrong with my car mine makes that sound as well :x how can i tell if it is the pump is it worth bleeding the system or drianing and putting new fluid

[titcharoony]

if i put up with the ssssh noise...it wont be a problem. :) cheapest solution

[andreas395]

just bled the system and top it up a bit and sounds a lot better :) gonna bleed the old fluid one day and put fresh fluid in whats recomended to use in a clio

[bendee]

i topped up with slick 50 but it just spits it back out ive seen it come out like a tap before lol and it makes the whine noise so i just put a pipe in the top and it filters it out instead of leaving puddles. i just top it up now and again, gets annoying tho.

[titcharoony]

will a bleed and re fill help me at all?

[cliokiz]

Mine makes a very faint pssshhh noise when turning the wheel at a standstill but i consider this to be normal.

If it's very loud and whiney and loud when turning the wheel then theres a problem.

Not the end of the world though lol

I've got a spare PAS pump from a 1996 valver on about 80k if anyones interested. No idea on condition but the guy i bought the engine off never said there were any problems with it.

Perhaps could get it refurbed or something?

[scott j]

seems a few have this problem, mine only makes the squerm noise from cold,usualy when i fire the clio up and give it full lock to turn around etc, so after the first time iv turned the wheels she's quiet again,

by any chance is thre a particular way to bleed the system of is it the classic top up and lock left to right unitll she wont take any more fluid?

[cliokiz]

The pump/rack will make a lot of noise on full lock, but also will be very noisy if the car is stationary when you turn the wheels as it's working a lot harder than when the car is moving.

[16v_paddy]

I haven't topped mine up at all since changin the pas pump and it still keeps spittin fluid out the reservoir :evil:

Really annoying but I'm getting rid of it soon so not too bothered

[white16valver]

Mine went through a phase of spitting shitloads out regularly, to the point that it was running down the inside of the bonnet when I opened it up after a drive.

Now it's always bone dry!

I call it 'character'... LoL :lol: