Power Steering Fluid Everywhere and Gearbox Question.

[nrt1984]

Hello everyone thanks in advance for any advice on this issue.

I kept putting off adding some power steering fluid to my 2002 Sierra (yeah I know). So anyway it was getting pretty bad (making lots of noise etc), but as soon as I was turning around to finally go get some fluid at a store that I had just passed and add it, the power steering went totally out!! And what fluid I did have left was all over the concrete, and it started smoking. (due I suppose to the fluid hitting parts of the hot engine)

I checked it out and could not really determine where all the fluid was coming from, I did not see any obvious problems with the connections or anything.

So I have two questions:

1.) Does this sound like a PS Pump failure to you? If not what else could it be?

2.) I want to know if the gearbox in my model of truck is the kind that is independently lubricated, because I need to drive my truck about 45 minutes from here in order to work on it, and I have been in a situation before where the gearbox was lubricated by the power steering pump, and after driving it for a good while with no power steering fluid the steering locked up, and I dont want to go through that again. How do I find out how my gearbox is lubricated?

[curtis73]

Your power steering pump and steering box is lubricated by the fluid itself. There is no external lubrication of the pump. The steering box failure you experienced before is nothing I've ever heard of. The steering box needs very little lubrication. It could operate for thousands of miles without pressurized fluid and not fail.

There is no way for us to determine where its leaking... that's all you, man I suggest you start it up and dump in some fluid. See where its dripping so you know where its leaking.

The pumps are pretty forgiving. If the pump fails, you don't lock the steering, you just loose power assist. Its certainly not safe, but not the end of the world. If you continue to drive it, the pump will eventually lock up and throw the belt off. At that point you lose the water pump, the A/C, and the alternator as well.

Find the leak, fix it, replace the pump.