Replaced pump and rack, still no power steering

[Spirit-RE]

Looking to see if by some chance someone has had a similar issue before. Car is an 06 MS6 with 50,000 miles. Thing was a mess when I bought it last month, was not properly maintained at all.


Through my own fault, I had likely overheated the power steering fluid, and shortly after completely lost power steering(this is before I found out how prone to overheating this system is). So I started cheap and bought a seal kit for the pump. A couple of the old seals were flat and hardened, but no obvious failure that was visible, granted I did not measure anything, and did not mess with the control valve. The old fluid looked terrible, dark and smelled burnt. Put it back together and it has some power steering above 3k RPM's but nothing below that.


To eliminate the variable, I changed the steering rack out with a used one that also had 50k miles. At this time I flushed ALL the old fluid out of the system, and blew brake cleaner through the lines. Put it back together, and no change, only has some power steering over 3k rpms.


So today I bought an entire reman pump from autozone. Put it on, and had great power steering until it came off of high idle. Then it progressively lost power steering until nothing was there. When I started it there was no whining, and while bleeding it at idle going back and forth to full lock, it never bogged or made more noise at full lock as it should.
At this point I flushed out the generic power steering fluid I had been using, and ran Dex III, as per the FSM. I also clamped the return line hoses with good hose clamps, even though there was no signs of leakage. Started it up and it worked! Pump was whining with air in the system as any other system would at this stage. Bled it out at idle until no more whine and it was perfect.

Turned if off, left it sit for 10 minutes, and started it, and no power steering at all. Again only has power steering over 3k RPM's. Tried bleeding it again, but it was like the pump was doing nothing under 3k, and the lines were quite hot to the touch.


Belt is NOT slipping.
No restrictions in the lines.
At no point was there ever debris in the fluid.
I will exchange for ANOTHER autozone pump.

Seems I covered all the major bases here, but obviously its something smaller.


My biggest questions to you guys, have you had ANY issue with regular parts store power steering fluid before?
Is the system that sensitive to overheating that it can overheat while bleeding?


My speculations at this point are: The "new" autozone pump is shit. Or there was some small metal bits in the fluid initially, and I never fully got rid if them(even though I flushed the sytem before installing the rack).

I can't imagine a failing rack showing these systems, to me its pump related, but why did the new pump just up and stop working with identical symptoms as before?




Wow that was a novel. Thanks in advance for any help(or just even reading through that lol).

I just want to make sure there's not a common issue here or something I don't know about.

[phate]

Did you put that little plug back on it? The wire on the top.

[06Speed6]

If the lines are hot, you have a blockage somewhere.

[Spirit-RE]

Issue is fixed. The problem was the new pump. Got another pump from autozone, put it on, and has been working flawlessly. Removed the control valve in the previous autozone pump to find that it was sticking all the way down. I pushed on it with a screwdriver a bit and it freed up, only to stick again.

[Sebi97]

Originally Posted by Spirit-RE Issue is fixed. The problem was the new pump. Got another pump from autozone, put it on, and has been working flawlessly. Removed the control valve in the previous autozone pump to find that it was sticking all the way down. I pushed on it with a screwdriver a bit and it freed up, only to stick again.

I'm having same issue. By the control valve, you mean the one where the electrical connector goes?

[kTaLgsTo]

[stockms3]

lol

[Sebi97]

I thought the one with the electrical connector was simply a pressure sensor for the warning light in the dash. I've tried rebuilding the pump already but it seems I can't get power steering below 2.5k RPM. Furthermore, at that RPM the PS I get comes with significant noise from the PS pump. I'm going to fabricate some pressure fitting on and check that the pump output is around 1470psi as per the FSM. I just wanted to confirm that the electrical connector corresponds to a pressure sensor.

If someone could try disconnecting their sensor and report back what happens, it'd be helpful. Do you lose PS? Do you get the warning light? Nothing happens for me...

[kTaLgsTo]

first off, what car do you have? Because gen 1 and 2 have different styles of PS pumps... Second, this thread is from 2014 and the OP hasn't posted since this thread...

[Sebi97]

I have a gen1, my apologies, I should have made that clear. I realize OP may not look at this thread again but clearly others are.