For the last week now my 1997 Cavalier (almost 97,000 miles on it) has had very stiff steering. It's not losing Power Steering fluid that I can see but it does have a build up of fluid on the power steering fluid cap, something I noticed it didn't used to do. To tell you more about what it does, say for instance, you are turning into a parking spot. It'll steer fine for a little bit but as you get to the apex of the turn it stiffens. The only thing that loosens it up is getting it moving faster again like if you're leaving a parking spot. Today I noticed there is a new sound from the engine compartment. The engine looks like it is running real smooth but it sounds like the noise is coming from around where the belt pulleys are. It's a real tingy sound to it. Yesterday, I had my dad look at it and he thought he sounded like the car had a valve tap and I made a comment that to me it sounded like the noise was coming from the belt pulley, it didn't quite sound like a valve tap to me. I know what a valve tap sounds like, my Mustang II had one that would not stop and plus it was making that tapping sound today when I stopped real quick to listen to what the new noise was it was just very tingy sound yet everything sounded like it was smooth otherwise.
Just gave it a good oil change with Valvoline Maxlife oil too. *sigh* Looks like it is garage time for the car but at least it's inspection is up so it's not a complete waste, LOL. Everything happens at once right? Any ideas on this? Also if you folks think it might be the power steering pump (I hope I got the right term for it...) how much might this repair cost me? My mechanic is pretty cheap and all but I'd still like to get a general idea if it's going to be a few hundred dollar repair or not. Thanks for your help.
call the dealer and see if the recall for the rack&pinion has been done. If not take it in and have them do that first.
The steering sounds musch like a rack and pinion going out.
The other noise is one of those hard to tell over the new noises.
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Hit 200 NA it broke once, Hit 213 it broke again,
Hitting 300 NA is further away than I thought.
Hm,. I never got a notice about the rack and pinion steering recall from GM. I know I did about the computer chip cover or whatever it was they had to add on. I'll have to call my local Chevy Dealership and setup an appointment for that. Might as well get new rack and pinion steering on it while I can. Thanks for the information!
Car goes into the dealership tomorrow night. Found out the ignition switches were recalled as well. The deal with the rack & pinion steering is actually something to do with a power steering gear, forget the exact part he named but I described what it is doing and he said that sounds like what happens when that part goes bad. So, hopefully can get that one fixed for free! LOL, that might even be the tingy noise I'm hearing from the car too potentially. Hopefully they'll get it all fixed up for me.
Glad I could help
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Hit 200 NA it broke once, Hit 213 it broke again,
Hitting 300 NA is further away than I thought.
Car is at the dealership now waiting for repairs tomorrow (Friday). I should hear something mid-day when it's done. Going to ask him when he calls what the condition of that power steering part is if it was bad or not. I'm hoping it fixes it.
Well, just an update. That part that was under the recall was bad so that is replaced. Apparently though, I was dealing with two problems at once and the other one will hopefully get fixed tomorrow. *sigh* - Took my girlfriend to the drive-in's and I noticed the steering was still tight but it was odd how it was tight. If I was idling it for instance it turn to the left ok (sitting still) but if I turned to the right it would stiffen up. When I revved it a little bit then the steering would loosen up and be OK again. On that note if I left off the throttle from the rev I could hear a popping noise inside the car.
So, on our way into the drive-in's (not the smoothest road) I heard bumping under the car. Sure enough, the exhaust pipe is loose. On the Cavalier's is the exhaust pipe situated in such a way at the front of the car if it gets loose it could push against your suspension somehow? Just wondering. I crawled underneath the car at the drive-in's and while I couldn't shove the exhaust pipe up and down I could move it side to side. Not sure where it's off at as I couldn't really see. Might go out and check it out now. heh
ARGH! My Mechanic can't find anything obviously wrong with the car. So the car passed inspection with "flying" colors. *sigh* I don't know what to do now. I guess I'll start doing general maitenance stuff to it to see if I can bring the idle back up to where it should be so the steering doesn't tighten up on it. I'll start off with the easiest things first... Air Filter, Spark Plugs (Time for some Bosch Platinum series I think), and Spark Plug Wires... see what that does for it. Any other suggestions? My mechanic checked out the rack and pinion steering and he said he can't find anything wrong with that, no leaks and such. This is just driving me batty, it's better than it was but I'd like it to be back to normal again.
Well, figured I'd follow up on this since it's most likely fixed now. I took the car to Meineke after much frustration with my normal mechanic acting like he really didn't want to work on the car (he's been like this since the emission testing came into play for Pennsylvania and I think he's happy just doing normal inspections now so this was the last straw for me and time to take it to Meineke).
When they called they said the checked the power steering hoses, the rack and pinion steering and all of that was perfectly fine so no worries about CV Joints or anything of that nature at this point in time - thank god! It was just the power steering pump. $191.20 for the repair at Meineke. I'm sure I could've got it done cheaper at my normal mechanic but the way he was acting about it would you rather pay $50 extra and know the repair is done properly with good quality parts or go through the headache I was going through with my mechanic? I took the option of getting it done right, knowing that was the problem for sure, and now have some peace of mind that everything else as far as the rack and stuff is still in good shape for the car having 100,000 miles on it.
Now since that repair is done hopefully once I get back to working and get some money saved up for it I can get my quarter panel fixed (amazing how much it has popped out though from hitting a guard rail), get the car repainted to look like brand new again in the same Turquoise color it has on now (probably let Apple Chevrolet do the body work so again I know it's done right) and then save up for new rims / tires for it.
