I just replaced a serpentine belt on a 2004 chevy Impala. Now the power steering will loose some of its "power". I at first loosened the bolt on the tensioner not knowing how to properly make it release, then tightened the bolt back after realizing my error. I know it did not move though.
View 5 RepliesLast night at 2am and it was about 10 degrees out (I say the temp because it might matter?) I started my car, let it warm up to normal running standard and backed up. My car moved backwards but the wheel would not turn at all. I pull forward into my parking spot and noticed that the wheel is extremely hard to turn left or right... almost impossible.
I check under the hood and noticed that my car was leaking something onto the group but it was dark and I couldn't quite see what it was.
Checked this morning and I found that my power steering fluid was completely empty. I had a half bottle in my trunk and put it in my car, then turned my car on. All of a sudden I noticed that the fluid is leaking onto the ground. Not really leak, more like a slow/medium pour and the wheel still wouldn't not move.
3.9L V6 Chevrolet Impala driver here. The vehicle has about 83000 miles on it. I've been driving it since 2006 and was purchased used. The belt is starting squeal. Which isn't that big of a deal since all belts do need to be replaced. However, the squeal only occurs when the temperature is hot outside or has been driven for a while. If I go on a long drive the belt won't squeal until I get to more stop and go traffic. I have sprayed pulley's while the belt is squealing and it is the power steering pulley. However, I am not sure if to replace the power steering pump or just replace the pulley. Sounds like a bad bearing in my opinion.
I replaced my belt with the recommended Gates belt. Upon inspection of the pulleys I had one that looked questionable. Here is an image of the pulley that was pulled imgur.com/a/vU8DG#0. This is the lower Idler pulley. [URL] ....
I just noticed today of 4/1/2013 that there is a slight squeal coming from the engine bay. I notice it more when accelerating then if I am just idling. This sounds like it may be the lower idler pulley.
I was cruising along yesterday and felt the steering pump go out on the highway. Nowhere to pull over and pulling a big horse trailer. Three miles later I finally get to a wide spot to dive into. I look down and the temp gauge is maxed and the oil light is on. Most of the antifreeze boils out when I got the engine shut down. I had no choice but to have a friend bring a new belt and some antifreeze to the rescue. Got it changed and filled back up. Started and drove home fine.
I've got this twisted gut feeling about the whole deal. What kind of damage did I likely do? Things to look for? Did I just kill the longevity of the motor? I've been trying to do things right and treat it well to ensure a reliable truck.
On a side note the belt came apart in ribbons and it was absolutely shredded. The belt appeared to be less than 3 months old. No cracks or tears and a bright white numbers sticker on the back
For the past several months, every now and then while driving the engine power will reduce and the Driver Information Center will display two messages: "Service Stabilitrak" and "Engine Power Reduced", and the ESC and Check Engine dashboard lights will come on. Shifting becomes rough especially between 1st and 2nd gears. After turning off the car for 10 minutes or so, the engine power will be restored and the ESC light goes out but the Check Engine Light remains lit. After a day or so the Check Engine light goes out. Otherwise the car runs normally. This happens at least once on every long trip where I am out on the highway - sometimes multiple times on a single road trip. It does not happen in short trips around home.
View 1 RepliesRecently I've been noticing a gas smell after parking my car after the drive home from work, but engine performance and mileage efficiency didn't seem affected, and I found no visible evidence of leaking on the ground (nor in the engine, but I likely don't know the right places to look).
Today, with the engine running, I looked around the engine to see if I could locate any gas leakage -- I located the fuel pressure regulator (I think; a golf-ball sized acorn on the right of the engine with a hose coming in the top and a pipe coming out the bottom and going down and to the left) and didn't see any leaking during my brief test. I'll check it again after my drive home tonight.
One new thing I did discover, though; while in park, when I slowly pressed on the accelerator, there would be a point where the engine started losing power and going into a rev/slowdown cycle: about a second or two of revving, then a half second of slowing down. This was while cold and in park; I've not experienced this in normal driving.
I am trying to troubleshoot why my heater blower, cruise control and info center above my rear-view mirror has stopped working. I am trying to confirm power to an orange wire next to the driver-side fuse box. I have confirmed no power at the fuses. I am hoping the problem is the wire box below the fuse box and not the ignition switch. I have a wiring diagram and the power feed to these three fuses is via an Orange wire. There are two Orange wires in the box, I am trying to determine which one feeds the fuses for these three devices. I have a picture of the fuse box.
View 2 RepliesI lost a hose in the driver side front wheel well this morning while pulling RV to a campground. By the time I got there and got the RV disconnected, I lost all power steering. I reconnected the hose using a zip tie and have a friend bringing me fluid to refill reservoir.
Is my pump toast now? Can I refill the reservoir and prime the lines and be good to go?
Driving home from movies tonight, I lost power steering and power brakes and the pump started growling. Looked in the reservoir and it was all foamed up. Within the last 20k mi I have flushed the system and refilled with power steering fluid. No apparent leaks at this time. And happened like someone flipped a switch. Fine one turn, nothing the next. What are the chances this is a fluid issue and not a mechanical one? Start with flushing system and adding Mercon V? Or is it likely pump is damaged?
View 7 RepliesSo I have a 1999.5 F350 diesel and the fuse panel under the steering wheel is acting up. I was driving my truck home the other night and I lost power and my truck shut off. I have had a problem in the past with the #30- 30 amp fuse ( controls the PCM and glow plugs from my understanding) that is under the steering wheel, I replaced the fuse and everything started working normally again. Until the other night when my truck shut off, so I replaced the fuse the truck drove again for 20 feet died again, I was able to hold the #30 fuse and allow my truck to start up again but would eventually killed the PCM and shut off again and would not start up due to what I believe the fuse location shorting it out and killing the power to the PCM preventing me from starting it up again.
I had my truck towed home and charged the battery and it started up fine the next morning. If I push on the #30 fuse my truck the shorts out and kills the power, I do not know if this is normal? The fuse is sitting loose in the fuse holder is there anyway making it fit tighter to prevent it from being so loose? I have read every other post online about the problems and tried everything they have recommended but still can not figure out what was wrong with my truck. I disconnected the fuel filter heater, and also the wastegate solenoid to see if that would prevent the truck from shorting out if I pushed the fuse it did not work.
What the problem could be causing the #30 - 30 amp fuse to be shorting out preventing everything from working? Or how to test the fuse panel and all the relays?
I have a 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 Truck. The other day, I lost all power steering, and traced it to a loose hose connection, which let all of the fluid out. I tightened the connection, refilled the reservoir, and then bled by turning lock to lock several times. when I am sitting still, or low speed parking, it feels like there is no power steering. If I am rolling, even a little bit, it is as normal, and engine speed does not seem to affect the problem, as I have raced the engine at low ground speed, and it is still really stiff. When driving, turns are easy in both directions. The way the effort required does not change with engine speed confuses me.
View 5 RepliesMy wife was driving the 1999 K3500 7.4 model ls crewcab truck home the other day and out of the blue it started running rough popping and back firing and lost power. It had a major tune up about 40,000 miles ago. It sometimes has a hard time cranking to start, but once it starts it idles really rough and pops and smells like it is running rich. I thought the distributor cap but it looks fine, could it be a sensor?
View 2 RepliesDriving down the road, vehicle lost all electrical power and died. There doesn't appear to be any juice at all to start it. The battery is fine (along with the terminals), the starter is okay too (although I don't see why that would affect total electrical flow). There were not any alarms on the vehicle. Is it the fuse box (negative terminal) or possibly the alternator? The alternator had been charging, and the battery showed that it had juice left in it. What would cause the vehicle to just die like that, in the middle of driving it? It's an LS type blazer with a 4.3 L engine.
View 3 RepliesWas driving on interstate and car started to loose power. Replaced battery and before I could make it home car started to loose power again (lost power steering and power brakes). Charged battery, replaced alternator, and now car starts fine but there are issues.
1) VGRS, VCS, and AFS lifts are on.
2) Steering wheel is 90 degrees off.
Car ran fine before alternator/battery replacement.
I have had various issues with my car over the years but on my way home last night my car just died coming down the interstate. It didn't make any noise, it simply kicked off the cruise, the battery light and oil light came on, and I lost gas and power steering. The security light did not come on and my car's forgotten who I am often enough I know how to do the key relearn by heart. My service engine soon light stays on because I no longer have a catalytic converter. When I turn the key over I smell gas (which I can only assume means there's not an issue with my fuel system), everything turns (alternator, belts, etc.) but it doesn't fire.
I had someone suggest that it could possibly be the EGR valve, but when I went to investigate, turns out there isn't one installed on my engine, where it should be there is a metal plate bolted to the "hole". In the past my ignition control module had to be replaced about every 11 months, so I had two and carried the spare in my car. This stopped happening when we finally replaced the entire coil pack. My car has always idled rough (I'm assuming I can attribute this to the lack of EGR valve).
Over the past two weeks it just seemed to get a little worse, it was making noises when accelerating when the car was cold, almost like a whining and the engine was idling hard. When looking for the non-existent EGR valve I did discover my air filter was ridiculously dirty and the air intake is full of oil. The oil was low but not enough to make the engine seize. I know that's a lot of information but was trying to be as clear as possible about previous issues and what I have ruled out. I did read that it could possibly be the CPR, but didn't know and I need it running again.
I have a 2010 Elantra 4dSD 2.0 DOHC. 61, 522 miles on it.
I have had no issues with the car until about 2 weeks ago. Suddenly the EPS light came on and I lost power steering. Upon pulling over and restarting the car the problem went away. I went about a week, and suddenly it did it again. Restarted car, went away, still does this intermittently.
I took it to the dealer, they found the following codes:
EPS - Electronic Power - C1259 - Steering Angle Sensor Electrical
EPS - Electronic Power - C1290 - Torque Sensor Main Signal Fault
EPS - Electronic Power - C1604ECU(Brake System) Hardware error
EPS - Electronic Power - C2400 - Motor
ABSESC - ABS/ESC - C1202 - Wheel Speed Sensor Front - LH Invalid/No Signal
ABSESC - ABS/ESC - C1208 - Wheel Speed Sensor Front - LH Invalid/No Signal
ABSESC - ABS/ESC - C1211 - Wheel Speed Sensor Front - LH Invalid/No Signal
They reset the codes, and EPS Reflash. Recalibrated EPS. They told me if the problem comes back I would need a new steering column ($1500+). This seems a bit strange to me for an intermittent issue. It would almost seem to me that if multiple sensors are effected that they are receiving bad data from somewhere. Could the ABS sensors be causing this problem with bad data? I've also heard a failing battery could cause this type of issue.
I've lost all power steering about a week ago. I checked all the lines the return is bring fluid up from the pump and the res is flowing into the pump.
A) should I replace pump?
B) look into other things that could be causing the issue?
I bought my van in 2011 from my dad's former employer. It was a fleet vehicle and wasn't in the greatest of condition when I bought it. In 2012 I was told that I had a leak in my oil pan from a mechanic. I never ended up getting it fixed for various reasons. A few months ago, I lost power steering in my van and have been driving since without it. My dad wanted to see if anything could be done to fix it and found out the van is completely rusted underneath and ended up puncturing a hole in the bottom when he tried to jack the thing up. I am really hoping to get a (new) used car but don't have the money right now. I was wondering though how long would you expect I could "survive" with my car like this?
View 16 RepliesMy 02 Ex V10 suddenly lost its power steering. And I mean completely, so it was a bitch to get it home. There are no leaks and the reservoir is full. It makes no noise at all when I try and turn the wheel, so it does not even sound like the pump is working at all. Does this sound like the pump or the gear box? Is there an easy way to tell before I just order the pump and hope that is the problem?
View 2 Replies2009 Mazda 3 Since a nasty cold snap in Northeast, instrument panel has gone crazy. The meter showing RPM's works but 0 on the speedometer- dead. Gauges have been all on for a couple weeks. Just noticed now the power steering is gone. All lights seem to work normally and heat/defrost works. Radio works. Haven't noticed if odometer is working or not.
View 3 RepliesWhile driving a mountain road (hwy 17) going downhill this morning I lost power braking and power steering and a got the following error message on the display
TRANSMISSION P LOCK MECHANISM
PARK CAR ON FLAT SURFACE AND APPLY BRAKES
I was able to stop the car on a flat area. I turned the ignition off and then restarted the car and the power steering and brakes came back, but the red triangle remained. I drove to the Toyota dealership and left the car for service.