Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

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?

 

 

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/485922-r34-power-steering/
Share on other sites

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 by Beanie
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 by joshuaho96

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.

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 🙄

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1

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

IMG_2094.jpeg

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

IMG_2094.jpeg

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.

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

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.

  • Thanks 1

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

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.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
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.

image.thumb.png.3a6083d367e061ba8f45775db72ec3a7.png

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.

  • Like 1

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

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.

All clamps are oem 

 

one question is , what is the bit at the top on high pressure pipe where it connectes to intake manifold and other side goes toward the engine( see item in red circle in diabram attached)

 

? Seen some people stating that should be removed on boosted application and skyline is boosted from manufacture so little puzzled. Mine is around 23pwi (700 hpish)

 

also some state it could be the bonjo bolt crash washer so bought two washers

IMG_2162.jpeg

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • So stock ECU does not like anything above 10 psi?  That Nistune one is just for "try" if it will be any different, I know it need to be tune for that. I know but YOU may know about these problem but i/we dont. They few little Skylines here let alone people who know anything about tham so that is why iam asking here  
    • So now we have a radiator with no attachments whatsoever. It lifts up with a particularly tight spot between the drivers side air box mount and the lower radiator outlet, but if you've got this far you will sort that too. This is the lower mounts with the rad out so you can see where the rubber bushes go, it is a straight shot upwards Done! Assembly is the reverse of disassembly, with blood less likely to be shed.
    • Right, onto the second last trick. The Air Con condenser is mounted to the front of the radiator and stays in the car when the radiator is removed. There are 2x 10mm headed self tappers holding the top of the condenser to the radiator, remove those The bottom of the condenser is attached to the radiator with clips. You need to lift the condenser out of those clips and clear (up, then forward). f**ked if  could work out how to do that last bit with the front bumper on. I hope you can, and you share the trick.  Bumper removal probably deserves its own thread one day once I've recovered the will to live, but basically you need to remove the wheels, front inner guard liners (clips and 10mm headed bolts), the self tapper between the guard and the bumper at the rearmost point of the bumper (same as an R32 that bit), any remaining clips at the top/front of the grill, an absolute bastard design with a plate that holds the top of the bumper above the headlight each side (only 1 bolt which is tricky to get to, but the plate catches 2 places on the bumper and must be removed....carefully!) and push clips between the bumper and guard under the headlight. If you've done all that you will be faced with wiring for the fog lights on both sides and in ADM Q50 RS at least, 4 nasty tight plugs on the driver's side for the ADAS stuff. So, the clips at the bottom look like this on drivers side (looking from the front) And on the passenger side (also from the front), you can see this one is already out Clearance on both of these are super tight; the condenser needs to move up but the upper rad support mount prevents that, and the radiator can't move down far because it is (rubber) mounted. Once you achieve the impossible and drop the condenser off those mounts so it does not stop the rad moving, you are good to go
    • OK, next the shroud needs to come off and there are a couple of tricks. Firstly, there is a loom from near the passenger side headlight to the fans, coolant temp sensor etc and there is no plug to undo.  In my case I was OK to leave the shroud on top of the engine so I just undid the passenger side fan plug and about 10 of the clips which gave enough free wire to put it aside. The fan plugs were super tight, the trick I used was a small falt screwdriver to push down on the release tab, then a larger flat screwdriver to lever the plug out of the fan unit....be careful with how much force you apply! If you need to remove the shroud altogether for some reason you will have to deal with all the plugs (tight) and clips (brittle)....good luck. I removed all of the clips and replaced them with cable ties that I will just cut next time. Also, in the Red Sport / 400R at least, the intake heat exchanger reservoir hose is bolted to the shroud in 2 places with 10mm headed bolts; so remove them (the hose stays in the car; no need to undo it at the t fittings down at the radiator lower mount. Once you've dealt with the HX hose and the wiring loom, there are 3x 10mm headed self tappers holding the top of the shroud to the radiator; remove those.   The shroud then lifts out of the bottom mounts where it sits on the radiator, up and onto the engine out of the way. Simples
    • Ok, disregard my “rate them” comment, sorry for my unrealistic input
×
×
  • Create New...