Power steering lifespan, minus the power

My 1G DSM is as rusty as the Titanic, and nearly as leaky. Early this morning when leaving work, I noticed the steering was way heavier than normal. After I backed the car up, I saw a big puddle of all of the Eclipse's power steering fluid. I assume the power steering pressure line was rotted to the point of rupturing, but I haven't had time to get the car up on ramps to have a look. This is in addition to a leaky oil filter housing and a lower radiator hose that is seeping. I'm working on getting the parts to repair those, but now I need to track down the failure point of the P/S system and add that to my shopping list.

Anyways, about how long will the P/S rack last without being hooked up to the P/S pump? I've heard not having fluid will accelerate wear. I can't take the Eclipse off the road for too long since the Mustang is NOT winter-ready.

A different year and car, but I drove my old '67 Mustang for four years of college with only front brakes and no fluid in the rack or pump (busted line.)

When the front brakes failed, I re-connected the rears and drove on them for another two years through grad school.

Hard times and desperate measures, but never a problem.

Luck,

TC

Loop the lines on the P/S for now and just drive it.

In reply to z31maniac:

The rack, the pump, or both? I haven't had time to remove the P/S pump belt yet.

on the rack

The rack, as long as it still has fluid will last as long as normal. The PS pump is what you should be worried about, if that looses fluid, and keeps being spun by the belts I doubt it will last very long

Cut the belt or remove the PS pump, it has its own belt. If you remove the pump, leave the pulley on the water pump or the rest of the accessories dont work right.

The rack will last plenty long even with no fluid.

I would source a rack from another car, any 1G FWD or AWD rack will fit, as will most 6th gen Galant rack. Pull the rubber mounts away from the rack, and make sure the lines are in good shape before proceeding to install.

the rack should be ok, but the pump will burn up fast with no fluid. Get the belt off it right away!

Nothing I can do tonight, the parking lot at work is pitch black. I'll remove the belt tomorrow and cross my fingers that the pump is still good when I repair the P/S problem. Until then I'm working on my Popeye arms.

Yep disconnect the pump and loop the lines and it's no problem. The residual fluid will probably prevent damage to the rack for a few days but the pump will burn out real quick with no fluid!

Agreed. I DD'ed (100 miles per day) my truck that way for years with the belt off.

I tried to remove the belt today and noticed the P/S pump, which should be held in by three bolts, is held in place right now by one very rusty bolt. And it will not budge. Needless to say, I wasn't able to get it out. I was going to cut the belt but I could not find a knife before I got sidetracked with errands.

I was able to source a used P/S pump through the New England DSM Forum, so I'll use that to replace the one that's stuck. Provided I can get that bolt off...

~60k and counting on an RX-7 rack.

Also ~60-70k on a depowered box.

Should be 3 bolts. One on the turbo side and two behind the pulley. You can only get access to the ones behind the pulley with the pulley in one orientation with a 12mm semi-deepwell or 1/4" drive deepwell. Then disconnect the lines (1x 17mm and 1x clamp) and it should pull right out.

If you need more room to work disconnect the drivers side motor mount from the fenderwell and jack the motor up to angle it, tons more room.

I got over 200k miles on my original Galant rack. I replaced it during an engine overhaul before it ever developed symptoms.

Not so lucky with the RX7. It started leaking at 95k miles. It was one of the side seals so all the fluid came out of the inner tie rod boot. I'm guessing it was age, not mileage.

my 924s rack was de-powered for about 3 years. Finally got around to fixing it and all was good. Yes I removed the belt or should I say it removed its self when the mount broke for the PS pump

One thing that has always intrigued me is will the added effort on the U joints in the steering shaft cause there premature demise? One of the reasons I fixed the I went through two of them while the SP was out of service. Previous to that they had lasted since the car was new.