R34 power steering

[drifter17a]

Hi all

 

my r34 has been off for over a year with occasional start. Today I noticed a lot of noise from engine bay when turning the wheel as if power steering has no fluid . Checked and loads of fluid had flowed out of the resorvoir. Has anything been blocked/ destroyed? Maybe fluid can’t get into pump

and flowing out ?

could it need bleeding by turning steering side to side?

thoughts?

 

 

[drifter17a]

Anyone:(

[GTSBoy]

On 11/9/2024 at 7:07 AM, drifter17a said:

Has anything been blocked/ destroyed?

 

3 hours ago, drifter17a said:

Anyone:(

No idea. It's too weird.

[Beanie]

Does the steering feel heavy when you turn the wheels? Any puddles of fluid on the floor or that you can see leaking from anywhere?

You could try bleeding the system, if it’s making a whining sound when turning the wheels then that’s a sure indication there’s air in there somewhere. Start the car and remove the reservoir cap, then turn the wheels from left to right a few cycles and then check if you see any air bubbles rising to the top of the reservoir. Top up if necessary and repeat.

Otherwise, I can only suggest that your pump vanes have seized or that there is a perished seal somewhere??

Edited Thursday at 10:18 PM by Beanie

[drifter17a]

Yep it is overflowing. All was working fine but been off for a year so guess something may have seized. Steering is heavy yes

 

i will raise the front of the car and will turn side to side to test id bubble goes away

[GTSBoy]

Or, just take PS pump off and inspect?

Does no-one do this any more?

[drifter17a]

Too much work, but guess I will have to

[joshuaho96]

3 hours ago, drifter17a said:

Too much work, but guess I will have to

Easy place to start is jack up the front end, turn steering wheel lock to lock and see if any air bubbles purge. If nothing happens it's probably time to pull the pump and inspect. It could also be a line is clogged for whatever reason and you need to isolate the part of the system that is blocked on the high pressure side causing the pump to be unhappy.

Edited Friday at 02:56 AM by joshuaho96

[niZmO_Man]

Mate. Your car is like 20 years old. Expect that the rubber bits (seals, hoses, etc.) needs to be replaced.

Best bet is to carefully go through your engine bay and try to find parts that need replacing (e.g. rubber hoses).

for your power steering issue, best bet is to pull off the pump (not that hard, you can buy basic tools from Supercheap et. al. to remove it) and then inspect/get it rebuilt.

*edit* forgot to add, no idea on R34, but my R32 HICAS computer has been playing up since I bought it (10+ years ago), so I just disconnected the small plug to "disable" HICAS but keep my power steering. So something extra for you to look into.

[Beanie]

It may not be relevant to your situation, but when I had the issue of air getting into the system on my GTT, I found there was a tiny hole in the aluminium cooling pipe. Enough for air to be drawn in, just not enough to cause a significant leak.

Looked like the previous owner had chosen a bad place to attach the earth clamp of his welder and tried to mask this with a piece of mesh sleeving 🙄

[drifter17a]

looking at attached screenshot , I don’t know why there is a significant hose run for it to be looped backed into the steering

 

mine bas air in it and loads of it as when i power the car off loads of air come to surface forcing fluid out. I think my issue is leak or maybe hole somewhere like yours. I am going to drain the fluid and smoke test it

 

when i turn steering side to side it soften up little before getting hard and believe issue is air leak somewhere as pump is fine

[joshuaho96]

2 hours ago, drifter17a said:

looking at attached screenshot , I don’t know why there is a significant hose run for it to be looped backed into the steering

 

mine bas air in it and loads of it as when i power the car off loads of air come to surface forcing fluid out. I think my issue is leak or maybe hole somewhere like yours. I am going to drain the fluid and smoke test it

 

when i turn steering side to side it soften up little before getting hard and believe issue is air leak somewhere as pump is fine

The reservoir is pretty far from the pump, as others have said some of the pipe is also a rather janky power steering cooler. Find the leak. It might be the rack, might be a hose/pipe, etc.

[drifter17a]

Does power steering have a cooler?

 

pump is right next to the pump and as I understand r34 hicas is electric so unsure why all that loop going to driver side from the pump where the pump is on passenger side( uk based) 

Below seems to replace the entire hosing with this kit

https://www.jdmgarageuk.com/jdmgarageuk-power-steering-line-kit-for-rwd-nissan-skyline-r32-r33-r34-silvia-s13-s14-s15.html?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAqLt7fNuZgXNepjqk8I-qovXgmJCu&gclid=Cj0KCQiA_9u5BhCUARIsABbMSPtHrfTutOf0ROkDV6lb7BQO-dqh2AMpqlyvTw7ncRMMkHjDIICIoA8aAiaZEALw_wcB

[GTSBoy]

53 minutes ago, drifter17a said:

Does power steering have a cooler?

Yes. This has already been said. It is a loop of hardline in front of the radiator.

54 minutes ago, drifter17a said:

r34 hicas is electric so unsure why all that loop going to driver side from the pump where the pump is on passenger side( uk based)

Because.... the pump is on the LHS and the steering rack hydraulic connections are where they always are on a RHD steering rack....on the RHS. The high pressure line goes down under the engine, along the crossmember, like it does on all Skylines.

Don't just throw expensive braided hoses/other kits at it. Work out what is wrong and fix that.

[drifter17a]

Thanks, plan is to drain all fluid tomorrow and do smoke test to find out the leak.

 

Appreciate your help and want to understand how the system work.

So cooling is achieved by the long loop not any rad? The diagram seems to suggest it connects to somewhere inside the cabin and I thought that is a cooler inside firewall. If you look at the diagram it seems to show it connects to something inside firewall. I tried chasing it but not easy unless I take loads off

 

i am confident pump is good as fluid goes in and it gets soft( steering) but as soon as I turn engine off , loads of bubble come to surface and overflow. When engine is on , fluid level is below minimum but when off it shoots off and thinking it is sucking air in. I suspect aluminium pipe may have a crack line or whole

 

smoke test with no fluid should be a good start and if needed will remove the pump

 

In addition, the one going under the engine bay is high pressure line and one directly connecting from pump to resorvoir is return/ low pressure?

 

finally I searched and suggestion is to use dexron 2 but that is discontinued so bought dexron 3 as all research suggest it is compatible and shouldn’t cause any issues/ blow seals. I bought two liter of dexron 3 motul atf

[GTSBoy]

49719 is the cooler loop. Right at the front, LHS of that diagram.

Return line from rack (LP side) goes to cooler loop on RHS front of car, then back under engine and returns to bottom of tank.

49717M is feed from tank to pump.

HP line out of pump is thick rubber, followed by the hard line that runs down to crossmember and runs in parallel (but opposite flow direction) to the LP return line.

Nothing goes anywhere near the firewall or interior of car. The closest they get to that is the connections on the rack.

[joshuaho96]

On 11/15/2024 at 2:17 PM, drifter17a said:

Does power steering have a cooler?

 

pump is right next to the pump and as I understand r34 hicas is electric so unsure why all that loop going to driver side from the pump where the pump is on passenger side( uk based) 

Below seems to replace the entire hosing with this kit

https://www.jdmgarageuk.com/jdmgarageuk-power-steering-line-kit-for-rwd-nissan-skyline-r32-r33-r34-silvia-s13-s14-s15.html?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAqLt7fNuZgXNepjqk8I-qovXgmJCu&gclid=Cj0KCQiA_9u5BhCUARIsABbMSPtHrfTutOf0ROkDV6lb7BQO-dqh2AMpqlyvTw7ncRMMkHjDIICIoA8aAiaZEALw_wcB

Do not replace the power steering lines with this stuff. If it's anything like the Chase Bays stuff it will leak and be worse than stock.

The reason why the reservoir is on the LH/passenger side of the car is because that's just where the reservoir was most convenient to fit. Don't overthink this stuff. The intake/cold side of the engine is pretty busy on these cars. And again, the hardpipe is designed to be a janky power steering cooler. In theory you can replace it with a real power steering cooler but that's really only for track use where boiling the fluid is a distinct possibility.

Start with the low pressure lines feeding the pump from the reservoir. Make sure there isn't a bunch of junk in the reservoir filter. Be careful to not get ATF all over the engine bay. I hate dealing with ATF spills, you can clean it up and the slightest crevice will still release more oil that can still drip over time. You also want to inspect for leaks before you make a mess and can't tell what happened.

Most likely you have a leak somewhere that is allowing fluid out and air in. Failing that it's allowing air in but not fluid out. Only place I can really see that happening is on the low pressure side because the pump will pull a slight vacuum to draw fluid in. Everything after the pump is high pressure or lower pressure, approaching atmospheric by the time it returns to the reservoir.

[drifter17a]

I have done smoke test and can’t see any leak on high or low side.

 

checked pump and fluid can flow through. Removed the high pressure from steering and did smoke test and same on low side, no leak.

 

puzzled. Thinking why if it was all ok it suddenly went as car was off road for a year. Don’t want to disassemble pump yet as i can see fluid / air( compressor) can flow through with no issues

[joshuaho96]

9 hours ago, drifter17a said:

I have done smoke test and can’t see any leak on high or low side.

 

checked pump and fluid can flow through. Removed the high pressure from steering and did smoke test and same on low side, no leak.

 

puzzled. Thinking why if it was all ok it suddenly went as car was off road for a year. Don’t want to disassemble pump yet as i can see fluid / air( compressor) can flow through with no issues

Do you have any hose clamps that are not OEM? You must use constant tension clamps in the system or when it gets cold it can be a "vacuum leak" on the intake side of the pump. The other thing to think about is whether there is excessive restriction on the inlet side of the pump. If it's pulling too much vacuum the cavitation on the pump will generate air bubbles as well and also burn the fluid.