Power Steering Fluid Leak

heavychevylover · #1 11-04-2003, 04:24 AM

I have a 1990 Sable and since they are common to a Taurus and the Sable board is dead I will post my question here. I had problems steering and suddenly it just locked on me while driving. I found out that I've been leaking power steering fluid and that its the rack and pinion at fault. Well, my question is, I added some power steering fluid to drive it home (which was less than 2 miles) but I noticed my blinkers weren't working. Is this related in anyway? They were fine before the steering locked.

proticus · #2 11-10-2003, 03:22 AM

How did you find out your rack was at fault? It's been 6 days since your post, any updates on the blinkers not working? Happening still? Intermitently? I had to replace my wiper switch (that whole arm to the left of the steering wheel)about a month ago. Sometimes the blinkers would work, sometimes they wouldn't. What was weird was that if it wasn't working, i could usually get it to work by restarting the car. weird huh? But by replacing the whole assembly (30 bucks i think) it fixed it.

heavychevylover · #3 11-10-2003, 08:56 AM

Well I thought it was the rack and pinion but it was actually a hose. The blinkers started to work fine. One day I while I was driving they weren't working, I made a stop, starting driving again and presto they worked! They have been working ever since. My new problem is when I do 30 mph the car starts to jerk and hesitate, I'm thinking I need to flush the tranny. When I do 45 the steering wheel becomes very very loose does anyone else have this problem?

proticus · #4 11-10-2003, 11:39 AM

well, hopefully your blinkers wont start acting up again. i doubt that the cause of the shaking at 30 mph is your transmission. but that's just my thought. i haven't driven it. how long has it been since your last tranny flush? word of advice. if it's been over 70,000 miles, think at least once about not doing it. once you go past 70,000 miles without a flush, the seals get all varnished and start to dry out. the new fluid that you will flush it with has cleansers in it designed to remove this varnish and gunk. so the new fluid actually begins to eat away your seals. one more good reason to keep up with scheduled maintanence. i am not gauranteeing that you will start leaking, but you run the risk, and i've seen it more than several times. if you're definitely going to change the fluid, do a pan drop, that way the cleansers aren't in such high concentration to do too much damage. what do you mean when you say "loose"?

proticus · #5 11-10-2003, 11:40 AM

the "loose" steering wheel problem i mean.

heavychevylover · #6 11-10-2003, 06:03 PM

By loose I mean that it becomes difficult to steer at speeds higher than 45, I have to grip the wheel harder to avoid swerving. I'm thinking it just needs an alignment.

As far as the tranny being flushed, I just bought this car so I don't really know too much about the maintenence history. It has 104k miles. I've done a tune up but that's all. If not the tranny maybe flushing the power steering fluid will help with the vibrations and jerking? Other than that the car runs well, being 13 years old.

heavychevylover · #7 11-10-2003, 06:12 PM

Oh I forgot, the mechanic told me that my wiper switch needed to be replaced since he checked all the fuses and there was no problem at least electrical. I was going to do that until my blinkers magically appeared. While my blinkers were out my brake lights were out too, only my third brake light was working. Now everything works. (shrugs shoulders)

proticus · #8 11-10-2003, 10:13 PM

sounds like an alignment job to me. the power steering system wouldn't cause it to jerk. not unless you were trying to turn, and it would pull, let go, pull, let go. that would indicate that your pump is binding. but that doesn't sound like the case here. as far as the deal with the brakes not working as well as the blinkers, i don't know. it might make sense considering they also sub as the blinkers. i don't remember them not working, but i didn't really check. i could see the cyclops light working as a brake, so i never really thought about it.

heavychevylover · #9 11-14-2003, 05:07 PM

Ok, just discovered the inner and outer tie rods on both the left and right front are worn out. That's why the steering would go bad when doing more than 40mph. Funny, I took it to a meineke mechanic and I asked him to check that for me and he said it was ok but I needed a new rack and pinion (and he was giving me a great discount of $499 to fix it). I find out it was just a steering hose and my tie rods are worn out. Go figure.

proticus · #10 11-15-2003, 03:23 AM

it's people like them that make it hard to trust other people with your car.

bnisbet · #11 11-18-2003, 02:19 PM

Hi Guys -

Just reading your thread here - I've had some similar problems with a '94 Sable.

Right now, when the wipers are on, they stop working when I turn the left blinker on. They continue to work fine when I turn the right blinker on. It's only the left. In addition, the wipers don't just stop, then actually "shut down" as if I turned them off. As soon as the left blinker shuts off, the wipers start up again.

I recall having to replace the whole turn signal a while back for whatever reason - maybe this seems like an ongoing problem...

Brad

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