sean4385
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 2, 2003
- Messages
- 200
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Hopewell NJ
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '97 Sport
About a month ago my power steering started to fail making it hard to turn the wheel. So after some reading in the boards i learned about how to drain the power steering fluid with a turkey baister, which was what i needed to do since my fluid was black. That fixed the problem for about a week or two. But now the wheel is getting stiff again, but this time it only happens when you turn the wheel past certain angles. The fluid was still somewhat brown so i tried draining it again. This time i used the method where you pull the return line out and pour about 2 quarts of ATF through the system. After doing that twice it didnt fix the problem, so i dropped it off at an auto shop. They told me i needed a new PS rack which would cost me almost $500 after labor.
Iv'e done enough reading about PS racks to see that this is alot of money for something that can be done at home. however i couldnt gather enough information from the searches to learn anything else that would help me: such as what the heck a rack is, where it is, what it looks like, what it does, and especially how i would go about replacing it.
I did hear something about a conditionor that you can use which can clean it out and sometimes fix the steering problems, but i dont know where the rack is so i wouldnt be able to apply to conditioner to it.
Im not saying that an auto shop would ever try to make me replace something that could be fixed with a fluid...so they could make more money....but im still going to try this solution first.
So if anyone could please tell me how i would go about doing this i would be grateful. I'd also like to know more about the rack, and, most likely sometime in the near future, how to replace one.
Thanks,
Sean
Iv'e done enough reading about PS racks to see that this is alot of money for something that can be done at home. however i couldnt gather enough information from the searches to learn anything else that would help me: such as what the heck a rack is, where it is, what it looks like, what it does, and especially how i would go about replacing it.
I did hear something about a conditionor that you can use which can clean it out and sometimes fix the steering problems, but i dont know where the rack is so i wouldnt be able to apply to conditioner to it.
Im not saying that an auto shop would ever try to make me replace something that could be fixed with a fluid...so they could make more money....but im still going to try this solution first.
So if anyone could please tell me how i would go about doing this i would be grateful. I'd also like to know more about the rack, and, most likely sometime in the near future, how to replace one.
Thanks,
Sean
