Power steering pressure too high??

[cmspaz]

Rubber hoses get old and stretch or balloon over time. It's probably just a case of old hoses needing replacement.

How has the fluid level been through all of this? I get the feeling that over those few months, the level is slowly going down as you lose fluid and that's why the assist goes away and the pump gets loud.

As far as temperature, the fluid is much colder and thicker, and can cause diminished assist as it doesn't flow through the valving in the rack as well. How is it once the car's been driven?

[signal15]

Fluid level is *always* between the lines. It does leak somewhere a bit, but I always keep it at the proper level.

It gets better when it warms up, but it's still bad.

Your explanations make sense for most vehicles, but not this one. There is something seriously wrong with it. Also, I just checked underneath, and the high pressure hose is burst. When the other hose popped off and when this one burst, it was at almost an idle and the wheels were very hard to turn and it was whining. The wheels were nearly straight both times (just starting to turn them to back out of a parking spot).

Thinking about this more, I am guessing that it might be the pressure relief valve or the flow valve. But, from what I can tell, these are both built into the pump on this vehicle.

The thing that sucks... I ordered a new car which was supposed to be here 3 weeks ago, but it got delayed until Dec. Otherwise, this would have been traded in.