2002 grand am power steering

[abaird]

My buddy has a 2002 grand am se with under 30,000 miles. It has the 4 cylander motor, the 2.2L I think. Any way the problem is that his power steering fluid keeps disapeering. We haven't had much time to look at the car because it has been very cold but there are no puddles left under the car so it doesn't seem to be leaking. I was wondering if anyone has had problems of this sort with these cars. My theory is that is somehow getting inside the engine. The power steering pump is gear driven instead of belt driven so if the seal between the pump is bad I could see how this could be happening. But I dont know much about gear driven power steering pumps so I could be wrong. Any help is appreciated.

[Slade901]

Well, if you are loosing power steering fluid, the fluid is going somewhere. Check the power steering rack and you might need some shop light. How often does the fluid becomes low?

You might want to raise the front of the vehicle where the front wheels are off the ground and start the vehicle and make sure the power steering fluid reservoir is full and then move the steering side to side and see if you can re-create the problem.

There are fluid flourescent dye where you can purchase and detect it using a goggles that comes with it. It is similar to the flourescent dye used to trace leaks on the A/C line.

[abaird]

thanks for the input. to answer your question, the car doesn't get driven much. The fluid gets low about every 30 miles. Which is about once a week. We will look into it further when the weather cooperates.

[grfnkl]

If you find out what the problem is let me know since my 02 tends to eat power steering fluid at times... randomly.