Please Help! PAS pump.

[RustyNut]

Hi all. Really need some help with trying to solve my PAS pump issues. I'm now on my third re-built pump, the latest one being purchased as a professionally built recon unit. Today, after driving only a few miles since the new pump was fitted, the pump started making noise when I turned the wheel and then soon after it seized solid whilst on the move!. The smoke from the belt spinning round the pulley was crazy, I thought it was on fire! Something in the system is, I think, creating huge pressure and blowing the seals, this time the bearing seal to the pulley. I don't know enough about how the system works to be able to establish what could be causing the problem so I'm hoping someone here will be able to help me out? The whole system was flushed through and was completely clear when the new pump went in and I've used proper goo200 fluid. I've posted about this before after the previous failure but after applying all advice to the latest install the pump failed yet again... Please help me end this madness !

[mike74]

Have you checked to make sure there aren't any blockages in any of the pipework? This could potentially increase the load on the pump...

[RustyNut]

Hi Mike, all the pipes were checked and flushed through.

[LGK6D]

I'm now on my third re-built pump, the latest one being purchased as a professionally built recon unit. Today, after driving only a few miles since the new pump was fitted, the pump started making noise when I turned the wheel and then soon after it seized solid whilst on the move!.

A secondary failure you could down to bad luck, but a third would suggest there's something more at work here. There must be a hydraulic lock to stall the pump. If the lines are clear, could it be a fault with the rack itself?

[RustyNut]

As in the rack somehow creating increased pressure over the standard operating pressure when the wheel is turned?

[RustyNut]

It may well be another failed pump? Pure bad luck.

[newsh]

Have the gauzes in the banjo bolts been cleaned?

[LGK6D]

It may well be another failed pump? Pure bad luck.

It's massively unlikely you've had so many bad pumps in a row. I'm not entirely sure how the rack works, but I imagine there's some kind of sequence of bypass valves in there so when there's no steering input, the fluid is bypassed and returned in a loop. If something's wrong in the rack, even with no steering input you could be building pressure. It wouldn't take that much to stall the pump. Just thinking out loud.

[Rusty]

From our conversation yesterday and my knowledge of the car, the first pump was the original that was rebuilt. It worked before this and failed after the rebuild, due to leaking from the seal between the front and centre part of the pump.

This was replaced with a working secondhand unit that was only leaking from the X plug - a common complaint.

The final item must have been defective and the bearing has disintegrated; leading to it failing.

I don't think there's anything going on here, just an old pump that was incorrectly rebuilt, so it leaked, a working pump that needed £10 spending on it and a refurbished pump that has failed almost immediately.

I'd just get the X plug seal and fix that to get the car working. You can then sort the refurbished pump out and still enjoy the car!

The car has worked fine when the weeping second pump was on there and worked when you got it, although the original pump was a little noisy.

[Error404]

So the 3 pumps didn't fail in the same way then?

[RustyNut]

No, all pumps failed in different ways. Andy, the last pump that was leaking from the X plug was very noises when it went too. I'd like to think it could still be used by just swapping out the X plug but I have concerns whether more damage was done when all the fluid decided to leave the system.

[Rusty]

The belts can be horribly noisy. A bit of lubricant helps a lot.

[newsh]

When you refilled the system, did you bleed it by turning the steering from lock to lock a few times? I'f not you can get air trapped and then when you do go full lock the air is expelled and the fluid level drops making the pump groan.

[RustyNut]

Would that solve the noise mystery or would that also point towards the seal failure Newsh?

[RustyNut]

The system was bled by the way.