Car Repair- Power Steering Pressure Hose

Yeah, so about every 6 months something on my current POS car goes out and I post a thread asking about it. I’m curious like that. This time it’s the thingy in the thread title, it’s been a couple months and steadily getting worse. It’s pretty bad right now- I’m adding PS fluid once a week or so the last couple. It smells like burning, and smoke wafts out from under the hood when I stop, usually- sometimes wispy and once in a while roiling clouds of it. It’s so embarassing- gratuitous story!- a couple weeks ago I stopped to get gas and this man walks up quickly to me and says, very intently, “Is there a problem??” I thought maybe I cut him off on the road or something and almost peed a little and quickly said, “No, there’s no problem!” Turns out he noticed smoke coming out from under the hood and was concerned for me. I was so relieved.

I’m planning on taking it in at the end of next week, Thurs or Friday. My question is: Can I safely drive it until then? At least just to work and back, 10 miles or so each way? Should I not use the PS fluid with stopleak, I just read that it can damage the pump? My mechanically-ignorant thought is that the worse thing that could happen would be ruining the rack and pinion and/or pump- is that correct, or could it be way worse than that if I chance driving it until I can get it fixed?

Thanks to anybody that knows the answers to these questions.

What is the worse that could happen? The high pressure hose bursts, sprays PS fluid onto the hot exhaust and the car burns to the ground. What are the odds? Greater than zero, less than 100%

Next possibility is are you sure it is the high pressure hose and not the pump itself that is leaking? The shaft seal on the pump could be leaking due to a bad pump. Odds? probably greater than the first possibility.

Next is the pump runs dry and destroys itself. Odds? probably greater than possibility 1 and less than possibility 2.

Finally, you could well get away with it. Odds? Probably the best of all of them.

Alice I am very concerned about the smoke from under the hood. that means the oil that is leaking and somehow getting warm enough to smoke. From smoke to fire is not that far a stretch. Please be careful.

Ah, my favorite Doper mechanic- I was hoping you were still up, Rick!

This

is the info that I needed. I will borrow a car that’s available to me starting tomorrow. I don’t do car fires.

Thanks!

I would not use any type of stop-leak product. It won’t help a bit with a leaking pressure hose. It can reduce leakage from a seal (e.g. power steering pump shaft seal), but only for a while - after which the leakage will get much worse.

If you’re careful to keep the fluid level maintained, you can avoid damaging the pump and/or steering gear from their running dry. Check it often enough to keep it from getting too low. A growling noise is typical once it drops below a certain point, but you really don’t want it to get that far. Rack and pinion assemblies cost over 500 on many cars, and the pumps are often 200 or so. On some cars it’s much higher.

It’s a calculated risk as far as the hose bursting (at which point it will be impossible to keep fluid in the system) or starting an oil fire. These are not common occurences, but they do happen, and could raise the total repair cost significantly.

Can you safely drive it for ten more days? We’ll know ten days from now. :slight_smile: Like Rick said, the odds are you’ll make it, but there’s no guarantee. If there’s say, a 5% chance that it won’t make it, being in that unlucky 5% means having 100% of a problem.

I had a guy look at it again today, and apparently the hose is squirting out all over through small cracks. (Duct tape, anyone?) He said he thinks I could get away with it, but then he’s not a mechanic, he’s just a friend.

I’ve got confidence in my ability to keep checking it and not letting it get dry (did that with another POS and yeah rack and pinion thingamabobbers ain’t cheap) but it’s the squirting he described that worries me, what with the possibility of hot engine plus outside temps of over 100 plus PS fluid. Just the mental picture of me on the road with my kid in the hot sun with a car on fire-- eek! I hadn’t thought of that.

Do you know someone who is handy w/ tools/cars? The hose can be changed out fairly easily. You can buy a replacement hose to fit your year/model car, or you can take the old hose to most parts stores, especially a NAPA member, and have a new one made while you wait. Ater installing the new hose, you replace the lost fluid and you’re good to go.
$200.00 for a PS pump? I think I’d got to the nearest U-Pull IT and get a used one for 25 or 30, especially on an older car.

While I do know a couple of guys that may be able to take a stab at it, I’ve found that it’s worth the piece of mind to just go ahead and let my trusted mechanic (an ogsend!) take care of things like this. I may pay more to him than to a shadetree mechanic, but to me it’s worth it to know things will be done right, presumably the first time.

Understood. Just tryin’ to save you a couple bucks. Peace of mind is often worth letting a pro do the job.

::: Snerk:::
Depends on what you consider fairly easily. Depending on the car they can be a cast iron bitch. As in several hours using tools the average shade tree mechanic does not own.

Okay, now you’re REALLY scaring me!

I might need you to start a ‘doper in need’ thread, please stand by. :stuck_out_tongue:
(That was a very nice thing that you did-seriously.)

Don’t panic Alice most cars are not that hard. Your professional mechanic probably already owns the tools I was speaking of.
Its just when I read that post about how easy it is to swap a PS hose I flashed back to changing them on V-12 Jaguars. I swear you would not believe all the places that damn hose ran. You would also not believe the positions I had to contort my body into to be able to reach the fittings.

Ah, Jaguars. Very cleverly engineered. There is no part that can be removed without removing at least three other parts first.

As my buddy used to say: “British cars, more parts doing less.”

Sounds like a Ford Taurus I used to have. The PS lines ran from the pump, down the right fender, across the firewall, and back up the left fender to the rack. You almost need to pull the engine to even see them. :smack:

And from personal experience, it is possible, but unpleasant to drive a car with no PS fluid. We used to have a Plymouth Horizon (aka Dodge Omni) that suffered a catastrophic hose failure when parallel parking. Once the fire was put out and the PS pump belt removed, the car was manageable at almost any speed, but was an absolute bear to steer at parking lot speeds.

On the Jag I mentioned, the port on the back of the pump and fitting on the rack were less than 18" apart. The hose was over 6’ long. :eek: