[SunshineZX3]

my mom drives a 1999 grand am se, and it has recently been having a LOT of problems. my brother-in-law has been trying to fix it, but comes up with no results. the power steering pump has made a lot of noises lately, and he thought it was just going bad, so a new one was ordered and put in. a few days later, noises returned. he checked her car to see where it was made, and tried to order a new pump from a different place. still, a few days later the problems returned. so today he took her car and did the same thing over again. we drove it to dinner that was 40 miles away.... and it lost all the power steering fluid on the way there, and near impossible to turn after that... made really loud, grinding type noises when the car would turn. my brother-in-law thinks it could be the rack & pinion (sp?) or something that has to do with the turning device. anyways, it's just getting worse and i didn't know if any of you had an idea as to what could be wrong, or if anybody else has had issues like this. I would really appreciate any response. Thanks.

 

[Kool_ZX3]

I would bet it's the rack and pinion, My friend's parents rack and pinion is done in thier car and it's a late 90's grand am se so i bet that's the culprit right there.

 

[Virtual_Insanity]

From your description since the power steering pump was replaced twice and the problem still returns even worse now with the fluid loss most likely it is the power steering rack seals and needs to be checked then overhauled or replaced with a reman unit.

 

[SunshineZX3]

her car was taken in this morning, and they said they would look at it when they had the chance, but they were pretty backed up so they doubted it would be looked at, let alone fixed, today. i guess towards the end of today they had the chance to look at it, and they said it was a huge mess... there was power steering fluid all over the place and they had to clean that up before they began to look at the car. my brother-in-law spoke to a friend of his that is in the car repairing business, and he said a high pressure line could be leaking as well... but definitely the rack & pinion is probably bad and that could be up to $700+ to fix......

ain't that a pisser

 

[Kool_ZX3]

Originally posted by SunshineZX3:
her car was taken in this morning, and they said they would look at it when they had the chance, but they were pretty backed up so they doubted it would be looked at, let alone fixed, today. i guess towards the end of today they had the chance to look at it, and they said it was a huge mess... there was power steering fluid all over the place and they had to clean that up before they began to look at the car. my brother-in-law spoke to a friend of his that is in the car repairing business, and he said a high pressure line could be leaking as well... but definitely the rack & pinion is probably bad and that could be up to $700+ to fix......

ain't that a pisser

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">700 for a new power sterring rack,My god that's crazy.My friend's parents got a new power steering rack for like 300 i heard.His dad is installing it himself to

[ 05-30-2003, 10:43 PM: Message edited by: Kool_ZX3 ]

 

[schroedzx3]

Could it possibly be the fact that it is a GM product!

SCHROED

 

[SunshineZX3]

Originally posted by schroedzx3:
Could it possibly be the fact that it is a GM product!

SCHROED

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">haha well yeah... we've been telling her that

Originally posted by Kool_ZX3: 700 for a new power sterring rack,My god that's crazy.My friend's parents got a new power steering rack for like 300 i heard.His dad is installing it himself to

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">yeah... but you have to remember that this is including labor, not just the parts to replace it. if we could do it ourselves, it'd save us quite a bit of money. but we don't have the equipment to do something of this caliber. so we are just getting it fixed at the dealer. Yeah it's probably stupid to do so, but we just have no choice. It's sad that she almost has the loan paid off (only a few more months) and something like this goes wrong... that's just our luck i guess.

 

[Kool_ZX3]

Originally posted by SunshineZX3:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by schroedzx3:
Could it possibly be the fact that it is a GM product!

SCHROED

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">haha well yeah... we've been telling her that

Originally posted by Kool_ZX3: 700 for a new power sterring rack,My god that's crazy.My friend's parents got a new power steering rack for like 300 i heard.His dad is installing it himself to

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">yeah... but you have to remember that this is including labor, not just the parts to replace it. if we could do it ourselves, it'd save us quite a bit of money. but we don't have the equipment to do something of this caliber. so we are just getting it fixed at the dealer. Yeah it's probably stupid to do so, but we just have no choice. It's sad that she almost has the loan paid off (only a few more months) and something like this goes wrong... that's just our luck i guess.

</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Yah damn GM for yah

Oh well that sucks yah can't do it yourself's