I rarely drive my WRX during the summer and lately it seems like when I pull it out of the garage the steering has "catches" in it. Meaning that when I start to turn the wheel it will be hard to turn then all of the sudden easy, and after a few more degree's of turn, hard again, seeming to alternate between hard and really easy as i turn. I have about 80k on the car now so I replaced the PS fluid and I have driven it a little, it seems a little better but sometimes the PS just doesn't seem to be there. Has anyone experinced this? Is my PS pump just about done? Thanks in advance Harlow
The PS belt could possibly be slipping. Easy to check/find out, tighten it up and go for a drive. I would check this first before condemning a ps pump.
I checked the belt tension, it seemed to be withing the proper range about 120, hte belt looks good no glazing, and the pullys look ok also. I do not see or hear any evidence of slippage. does anyone have any other ideas? HEF
When you turn the wheel are the stiff spots always in the same location or do they come randomly? Other things to check would be the cheesy u-joints on the steering shaft(engine bay side of the fire wall). If they wear out and get loose they can bind. Possibly some thing in the steering column binding up? Only other option other then the pump would be a bad rack.
it seems that the bind and unbind are about 20 degrees of travel each, I would say that it was rpm related but it is much harder to perceive the hardness or softness of steering at speed. it does seem to improve with driving, being hardest when I first start driving for the day. I almost suspect the joint in the shaft but a bind in that should last more than 20 degrees. I may start replacing belts because at this milage it makes sense anyway. HEF
I thought there was a valve like that, I would think that if I replace that it should unstick at some point shouldn't it? I know one of my jeep's had one and it had sort of the same effect when some of the exess RTV made it into the valve (shuttle valve on high side) and jammed it. Is the valve serviceable? HEF
think so, but sometimes it is only a little more to replace the whole pump.. at least it was in my 03 wrx
You filled it with power steering fluid didnt you? check the cap, It takes ATF. I did the same thing, I would flush it right now, you may have already blown the pump.
NO i did not, I used Mobil 1 ATF, sorry to dissapoint, my problem didn't start after I changed fluid, it started before. I have a hard time telling if it is getting better at this point, always worse when cold then better as it warms. I wouldn't be so worried other than if I make the GF drive it when I steal the Grand Cherokee to grab a trailer for the 4 wheeler. it might result in a nasty accident! I will update as I figure the issue out. For reference it seems to be the same problem as ImprezaWrx9 talks abount in the post below. http://www.mnsubaru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18803
Well, thanks for making things more difficult. I think that the control valve may be bad, or the whole pump. DO NOT buy an aftermarket pump, I went through three before I just gave in and bought a factory pump.
Any idea on the cost of a new pump? I actullay talked with my brother (ford master mech) and he thought it sounded more like the rack?
It is most likely your ps pump, I had the same deal, but mine was along with a ford truck style groaning noise. A factory pump cost me almost $500 with a slight discount. I hurts the wallet, but it should solve your problem. good luck with all this, I hope everything works out for you.
Start of pump rebuild So since the pump rebuild was cheap I decided to give it a try. here are some pictures of the process. the first pictures are for reference, the pump rebuild kit, box and the bin that I used to rebuild the pump in
here is a picture of the pump dissasembled, basically you will need to remove the whole bracket from the car with the pump, then remove the pump from the bracket. I looked at some posts about how to remove the pump and it was not as easy as some people said. Then using a 10MM wrench remove the rear cover, it would be nice to have a vice for this. I re-used my pump nose seal as it was in good shape and did not leak before the rebuild, I always hate driving this sort of seal into place!
Here are pics of the valve, valve body and a sensor. I wonder what this sensor does as mine didn't seem to dhange anything when disconnected. My valve/valvebody seemed to be a little sticky, I had hoped that this was the problem.
here is a picture of the pump element and some pump parts, It was nice that the pump elipse had a 7.2 stamped into it that had made marks for reference on either side of the pump body parts.
Here is the pump body, pulley and shaft and first two orings installed before installing the pump element body. Basically after the pump element parts are assembled, the snap ring is put on the rear of the shaft and then the outer o-ring and rear cover are installed. of course after this the valve plunger was inserted into the valve body then the spring, and finally the valve insert was re o-ringed and screwed down to that great old german torque spec "goodandtight".
I believe the sensor is speed related.. the faster you go the less the p/s helps.... but at lower speeds it allows the pump to work more
Unfortunatly the car has the same steering as before, it seems like the ps is not there and then all of the sudden it works, still not sure what the problem is? Anybody have any ideas?
Locate the u-joints in the steering shaft and lubricate them with WD-40. You really need to soak those things down. I had the same problem with my Legacy.
Jeff the alignment guy? I tried this and it seemed to help I will update if this actually fixes the issue, seems kinda funny since alomst any car I have ever owned had joints like these? Harlow
Try jacking up the front of the car to get the front wheels off the ground and then try: 1. turning the wheels via steering wheel(engine running) 2. turning the wheels via steering wheel(engine not running) 3. turning the wheels via grabbing them and pulling/pushing them left to right, try from both left and right wheels to feel for binding. Try rotating them in a few spots to see if a axle shaft is binding for some reason
I just did a lap around the block, about 3/4 through I realised that if a cop were around I would get pulled over for doing something that looked like what I had turned in a Tahoe full of teenagers for, (slalom in a neioghborhood). Granted I was driveng much slower. The steering seems to be much improved, I am now contemplating replacing the parts of the shaft with ujoints on it, has anyone here done this? HEF
Not on a suby but done it many times on jeeps, trucks, 4x4..... Are Subaru's even replaceable with out buying the whole column?
I don't know if these are replacable separatly, it seems funny to me that I have never had a problem with these even in my 200K Wrangler? seems funny?
If you can take them off the shaft you will be able to feel if they are sticky, same as a U-joint on a driveshaft. Most of the ones I have done have been to upgrade the wimpy oem ones to Borgeson heavy duty stuff for off road and mud truck guys. Sand and mud do a number on some of the oem stuff. Most are held on to the shaft/column via a pin/bolt but some are press on and require a beating to get the old one off, then the new ones go on with a pinch bolt. I think I will crawl under my forester and see what they look like.
Well looking at my '08 forester they are replaceable. They/it(one piece with the joints) are on a splined shaft held in place via a pinch bolt on both ends. They actually appear to be mini like u-joints rather then some of the stamped steel ones I have seen in the past. https://www.1stsubaruparts.com/partscat.html seems to show them under steering column coupling Item number 2 Looks like they are not cheap Coupling, impreza - w/o svx - W/O SVX 02-03 $179.98 $129.59 I think I would take it out and see how it feels before I ordered one
I don't know I gauge how I buy parts on how much of a PITA the part is to get to/get off I will replace cheap parts just because of the difficultiy factor. If I could get these for lets say $50 it's be a no brainer. I would imagine that it would be quite hard to get these off, unless of course there is a slip spline in the mix somewhere. The problem really is just geting to the said parts, no access from the top and a 1' by 1' window from the bottom. I guess that will wait untill I get back from Canada, EH? HEF
Nope. Jason from Auto Audio in Duluth. Really soak these down. Jack up the front. With the car running turn the wheel back and forth and soak the crap out of them. Think of how much WD-40 you could buy with $50.00 I've never had this problem on my lifted Jeep either and it has similar joints. So far my Legacy has been good to go with the WD-40 fix.
WD-40 is a penatrant, not really a lubricant, I used a silicone spray. My problem with this fix is that it means that most likely there is something that is already not as it should be (seals failed on ujoints), also I do not take spraying flamable lubricants in a how engine bay lightly, meaning I try to avoid doing any liberal distribution of said products. Also consider that spray any lube on the exterior of a moving joint is likly to attract dust and dirt, possibly causing premature failure.
