Power steering heavy

[Alastair]

So my 1989 1.9 diesel seems to have heavy power steering at low engine revs....This seems to be a recent thing....about six months ago I used flushing Lhm and cleaned the filters and res and put new LHM in....Not for any other reason than I thought it should be done. RE the heavy steering.. I managed to convince myself that the steering was notchey and heavy...I changed the rack for a good second hand unit...but the steering is now smooth but I think heavy at low engine speeds...It does lighten up when you rev the engine and hold some revs on????Anyone got any thoughts??

[citronut]

first thing to check is the belt is tight secondly tyre presure's, then go on to make sure there are no cracks in the sucktion pickup rubber pipe usualy near the tank,


regards malcolm

[Gibbo2286]

A tired/failing high pressure pump, heavy power steering is always the first indication. Gibbo

[Tim Leech]

How new is the accumulator sphere?

[kiwi]

Power Steering Ram?

Flow Divider Valve?

Hydraulic Pump (although that would show symtons in other areas to)

Add to that the problem created by low tyre pressure and there is a lot of could bes to look at.

[Alastair]

Ram changed with rack....accumulator sphere not changed since I have had car, but no other sphere symptons....what is the "flow divider valve" and where is it located?

[rmattila]

what is the "flow divider valve" and where is it located?

It distributes the LHM flow from the HP pump between the pressure accumulator, power steering and the rest of the hydraulic system. Location at the lower edge of the picture, approximately one-third left from the lower right corner.

Disassembly in order to clean the filters (which cause problems with power steering if dirty):
http://www.rmattila.com/images/remontit ... venttiili/

Parts:
http://www.rmattila.com/images/remontit ... iili_osat/

-Riku

[citronut]

check the simple/cheap possible causes first though,

as in my post above


regards malcolm

[MULLEY]

Apologies for re-surrecting this old thread.

I've had on/off stiff steering for a few years now & i'm fed-up. Is it always a tired HP Pump that causes this? I would have thought (correct me if i'm wrong), that a tired pump would also cause the car to rise slowly? I'm not sure whether its the fdv that will need changing instead?

When i ran hydraflush it cured the on/off stiff steering, so i had presumed that it was a blocked fdv, why would the pump if it was tired decide to work ok?

The LHM cylinder was fully cleaned out & fresh lhm is in the car so its not dirt in the lhm thats caused the problem.

Any ideas/advice gratefully rec'd. I do have a 2nd hand pump & a few 2nd hand fdv's as well, but i'd rather know what is actually causing the problem than just replacing both & its then fixed without actually knowing what was buggered & what wasn't, if that makes sense?

Cheers

[Gibbo2286]

Well the pump's the easiest to change and in my experience the most likely so maybe do that first, I've never had an FDV problem except for a bit of a weepy leak.

[Dollywobbler]

Flushing cured intermittent heavy steering on the Green Tiger. As far as I know, it's still fine now, over a year since that work was carried out.

[Mike E (uk)]

It was the pump causing intermittant power steering on my car, at low engine speeds and particularly after cold weather starts.

I was told that the steering requireds volume of fluid to operate, where everything else requires pressure.

If the pump fails, the pressure is still reached and maintained,but the flow becomes insufficient.

If you have changed the fluid & flushed itt, next thing is change the pump.

I tried a 2nd hand pump, but it needed a recon one to fix the problem.

Mike

[MULLEY]

My fdv is leaking as well, so perhaps i'll change both & then see if the steering is sorted or not. I was presuming that ast the pump appears to be quiet & it rises quickly that i'd ruled it out. It might very well be that it's unable to deliver enough lhm when the steering is being used, but why is it so bloody inconsistent, usually at low speed as well, it can get frightneling stiff when turning at times whilst at other times it just feels a bit notchy. Could this be the universal joint thats shagged (not that i know very much about this particular part)?