I'm about to replace my 2008 Subaru Outback's power steering pump. Only question is: How do I adjust the belt tension? Looks like the pump is stationary, and I suspect the alternator is the key, since the belt turns that as well.
View 2 RepliesI have a 98 Subaru Legacy Outback with 133K miles. It was leaking from the power steering pump and valve cover gaskets. My husband replaced the passenger-side valve cover gasket (which involved removing the air box) and the power steering pump (which required removing the alternator). When we put the car back together and reconnected the battery, it no longer starts! It "clicks" once but won't turn-over. The car does not have an alarm system (but it was an option on this model). We've tried jumping it. The battery is about 14 months old. The alternator is about 10 months old and the starter was replaced about 10 months ago too. We've double checked the wires that were disconnected and don't think we've missed anything.
View 3 RepliesMy outback has 57k miles on it and already needs the front struts and rack replaced (diagnosed today at the Subaru dealership). The car has been making a whining noise in the engine and has been clunking when making turns for the past week. I have also noticed it hasn't been taking bumps as smoothly. They told me that both ends of the rack are leaking and both front struts are leaking. My husband did admit to hitting the curb on the driver side front tire pretty hard while making a u-turn about a month ago, but all other driving is pretty standard. Yes, we drive on dirt roads in the mountains a few times a year for hiking, but don't drive in a manner that I consider wrong. Did the u-turn incident cause this? (hard to believe that would affect both sides of the rack and struts).
View 2 RepliesI bought my outback a few months ago from a dealer/mechanic who had fixed the car after it was totaled. So it has a reconstructed title, but it was hit in the back, so all the engine parts were unaffected by the crash. Since I have had the car I have experienced intermittent loss of power steering ability. Sometimes it's nearly impossible to parallel park or turn a corner gracefully, and other times, within the same short trip, the steering will be completely fine and smooth. I have had the issue looked at about three times now by different mechanics. Each time they have either replaced or tightened the belt, which temporarily fixes the problem. But within a few weeks it always comes back. Is there something not keeping the belt tight, or could the issue actually be in the power steering pump?
View 3 RepliesA new issue has cropped up with my 2001 H6 Subaru Outback (which I believe is technically a Legacy). We've put so much work into this thing to keep it running and this might be the last nail in the coffin. However, what's going on...
My wife reported to me yesterday that the vehicle was turning itself off while driving. I was not in the car to verify any of this, so this part is anecdotal. After 45 minutes of driving, she said the engine was "hiccuping" and the gages were dropping to zero and then bringing themselves right back up to the current RPM and speed. She said the ABS light came on. The first time the vehicle did this, she reports that it did it many times in rapid succession. She described it as "the gages were going crazy". After turning around to come back home this happened once more, though not in rapid succession. It was a single occurrence of turning off and back on again. She indicated that the vehicle did not require a restart with the key. I suspect that this was because she was driving at highway speed at the time.
She brought it right to the mechanic and - as is the case with all intermittent issues - they were not able to repeat the failure in any way. So, being an engineer, I decided I wanted to experience it for myself and do a few tests.
Today I drove 45 minutes to work, 10 minutes of small town driving, 25 minutes of highway driving, 10 minutes of small town driving. Lucky for me (!), in the first five minutes of driving, the radio cut out, power steering died, and I heard fuses or relays clicking as I was gently braking and gently taking a right turn. I continued the right turn off into a parking spot on the side of the road and stopped the car. I turned the key to the off position, put it into park and restarted the vehicle right away. No problems. All was fine.
The vehicle did not do this again for the entire trip. However, I did perform some tests to see if I could repeat a similar failure with the ignition alone.
1) Turning the ignition off and quickly back on again by hand while rolling at highway speed (~55 mph) will cause the vehicle to kick back into a normal running mode.
2) Turning the ignition off and quickly back on again by hand while rolling at lower speed (~30 mph) will require a restart by turning the key all the way to the "start" position and not just the "on" position.
3) Turning the ignition off with the key (as in 1 and 2) DOES NOT cut out the radio. Note that when the intermittent defect occurs, the radio will cut out and then come back along with the engine and instrument panel.
4) Wiggling and stressing the keys to put strain on the ignition switch doesn't seem to cause anything to happen.
5) The battery is only a few months old and a general inspection of the battery terminals, cabling, and fuses indicates that everything appears to be in tact and clean.
I'm not the most experienced car person, so my terminology is probably a little off and that's all I have for now. I feel like this is a common ground issue and if I could only identify which ground services the instrument panel and radio and spark plugs I could inspect it and clean or replace a connection. My limited research reveals that there are many grounds throughout the engine compartment, though.
My 2004 Outback power steering was growling and squealing, but it was working ok at the time. I decided to replace the power steering pump before it completely failed and 3 hours later I was done. the growling and squealing was gone. However, when I backed the car out it was hard to steer at first. When I got going it all worked great, until I turned at the corner... hard steering again. When I got around the corner and up to speed everything is great again. The problem did not go away with time. Every time I turn at idle there seems to be no power steering. What is going on?
View 6 RepliesOne of my belts squeaks. I've tightened one of them as far as it goes I think. The other one is the one with the alternator. Do I tighten the pulley bolt on the alternator to add tension to that one?
View 4 RepliesAs I was driving home the other day, I noticed the steering wheel on my 99 Subaru Legacy (130,000+ miles) became considerably stiffer than ever before. I pulled into my driveway (where, incidentally, the wheel loosened up) and checked the power steering fluid. Unsurprisingly, it was low.
I haven't been on the road since, but I did turn the car around in the driveway. Aside from the wheel gently stuttering or pausing initially (it's done this when cold for a while now -- I always assumed it was a loose belt or something) the wheel seemed normal.
I made an appointment with a mechanic and described my symptoms. He said he'd have to take a look but suspected it was a bad power steering pump. Is this the only possibility? Could it be a bad belt or a leak somewhere in the system? If it is the pump, how much should I expect to pay to have it fixed?
Looking for instructions on how to replace the power steering pump? Dealer wants ~$900 to do it. Says it only takes 2.5 hours.
View 1 RepliesMy wife and I recently bought a 2005 Subaru Outback 2.5 XT with an automatic transmission. Last week, we had the timing belt changed by a mechanic I've gone to for the past four years and trust a great deal. He changed the timing belt, drive belts, water pump, pulleys, tensioner and a few hoses, and everything seemed to go off without a hitch. After picking up the car, though, we noticed that the idle seemed much rougher than it had in the past. We can't tell if it's also rough during driving, or when the car is in park or neutral, but there is definitely considerably more vibration when the car is stopped in drive and idling--you can feel it throughout the car. I haven't noticed it until the car has warmed up.
I asked my brother, who is a mechanic in another state, if he had any thoughts, and he said it could be that the belt is off a notch, a vacuum leak or an unplugged sensor. I brought the car back to the mechanic today to see if it he could fix it, and he said that the CEL would be on if it was a vacuum leak or unplugged sensor, and that the car has an automatic idle that the belt change would not have adjusted. He asked if the vibration was getting any better, since when the battery was unplugged it would take the computer awhile to relearn the correct idle, but we've driven it a few hundred miles and it hasn't gotten any better. I left the car with him to take a look at it, but he just called and said he couldn't find anything wrong.
I want to chalk this up to us imagining something, but we both have no doubt that there has been considerably more vibration at least when the car is idling since we picked it up after the timing belt change. Is there anything else that it could be or that I should ask my mechanic?
How to replace the power steering pump in a 98 intrigue S113800?
View 3 RepliesWhen replacing the power steering pump on my 2006 should I go OEM on the pump or save some money and get a Napa or aftermarket remaned unit with the pulley installed? Also, whar is the fluid capacity of the power steering system?
View 14 RepliesMy wife's Subaru just died on us. 98 Outback Legacy with quite a bit of miles on it. It was running fine, she took it to the store and then it would not start. It would crank but not fire. Internet searches led me to believe that it was a cam or crankshaft sensor. I go to pull the plug off and the weather beaten wires just snapped....
Turns out my option is splicing a new plug on or replacing the wiring harness. Now, SHOULD we decide to just replace the wiring harness. Is that a rip off?
I'm 1st time owner of a Subaru. This is an automatic 2013 Outback 2.5i Premium with 9,600 miles.
Last Friday and last night (Sun) when the car was parked with no key in the ignition, there was a continuous sound coming from behind the rear left wheel. It sounded like a fuel pump was on.
To stop it, I put the key in the ignition and turned it until all the lights come on without actually cranking the engine. When the key was removed, the sound stopped. The sound seemed to start a couple hours after I parked the car. Both occurred in the evening and there was less than 1/4 tank of gas in the tank.
Since there are 2 commonalities here, I'll fill up the tank and monitor every 30 min (may not be able to do this when I sleep!). Since it is intermittent, there's not much the local shop could do except to check if there is any Subaru service bulletin.
I am concerned it was draining the battery last night but this morning it started right away.
I don't know if this has been happening without my noticing. So is this normal?
I have a 2003 Ford Explorer with Power Steering problems. I have read and tried all the solutions I found here, except replacing the pump. Seems like it is the pump. Oil was burnt, I flushed twice. I checked the rack and lubed as identified in another post, same jumpy hard to steer issue. Anyway, now I am trying to remove the Pump. I have removed the reservoir and am trying to remove the pump. I have the top two bolts out, but cannot get to the bottom tow bolts. How do you access them? Do I need to remove the lower radiator hose, and / or the oil filter?
View 10 RepliesWe are a 2 Escape family. We have an '03 and an '05 - both 4WD and 3.0 V6. My college freshman son purchased the '05 this summer to get to and from his summer job. It has a little over 173K on the clock and it has a power steering leak, so I decided to try to tackle this one.
There is a fairly good video on YouTube on replacement of the power steering pump on an '03 - but apparently on the '05 Ford decided to relocate the pump from under the upper right engine mount to a lower location closer to the front bumper so the video is not of much use in this case.
I have searched the web and this site but cannot find any tips or instructions to replace the power steering pump on the '05. The Chilton Manual I have does not acknowledge the difference in the power steering pump location on the '05 and only provides the procedure for those Escapes where the pump is located under the upper engine mount.
I think I may be able to get better access by removing the inner fender plastic and perhaps the front bumper cover, but would really like to know the accepted procedure before I start tearing into this one.
One interesting bit of info regarding power steering fluid on these vehicles. Ford designed them to use automatic transmission fluid (Mercon) instead of power steering fluid. Initially, when I saw the leak, I thought it was a tranny line leak. Then I traced it to the front of the engine which is totally on the opposite side of the vehicle from the tranny lines.
Proud owner here of a '96 3.0L RWD Aerostar Utility Van with about 138k miles, and leaking power steering fluid. At this point I'm replacing fluid from zero every time I have to drive it which is about once a week. I've located the leak and it seems to be coming from the pump/reservoir around the pressure hose. The hose is loose as in i can move it around a bit, but from what I've read, this is normal and the hose is supposed to be like that. I figure that at this mileage, with so much air going through the pump, all the crazy squealing and whining it does even when full, at this point it probably makes sense to replace the whole pump while I'm in there, as opposed to just doing the reservoir. Anyway, I'm planning to do this in a couple of weeks, and have some questions...
1) The pump - I've read on this forum that the best way to go on brand of the pump is Motorcraft.
2) Hoses - I'd like to replace the hoses coming out of the pump while I have this thing all taken apart, but I'm not exactly sure what parts to get. I know one is the pressure and one is the return, but there are variations of each based on the research I've done. The parts on the Napa site have different descriptions like "with switch port", "without switch port" "56in hose" "26in hose", and so on. Which ones I need, specifically the ones connecting directly to the pump? I havent been able to find anything in my research online, in Haynes, or Chiltons manuals.
3) Washers - Whether or not I replace the hoses, should I replace the washers at the connection point? Chilton's seems to recommend replacing them. Will they come with the new pump?
My local auto parts shop has the pulley remover/installer for me to rent so I've already got that squared away. I'm pretty sure I've covered all of my bases otherwise.
2000 Honda Accord. Lots of whining-whirring noise when turning the steering wheel so I replaced the power steering pump. Then replaced the fluid and I did use the Honda fluid. But even with the new pump and fluid I'm still getting the whining-whirring sound from the pump when turning. Now what?
View 5 RepliesI am deep into replacing the timing belt on my 08 Elantra 2.0, and am nervous about taking the tensioner off since it is not obvious how to set it. I could use a fool proof explanation on how to set the tensioner.
The Haynes manual talks about 1/4 deflection but that seems too imprecise.
I can not see the marks in the video : DIY 2008 Elantra timing belt video 2 of 2 - YouTube
And this post 2008 Elantra Timing Belt does not quite seem to explain. I am contemplating putting it all back together, just changing the accessory belts and handing it to a shop. I could use a fool proof explanation on how to set the tensioner.
Is there a "how to" on adjusting the tension of the timing belt in a 2002 accent 1.5L ....
View 1 RepliesHow to change the timing belt and water pump on a 2006 2.0t passat?
View 3 Replies