Thread: Power Steering Rack

First of all I love this car, but it is a piece of ****....I bought it used and have dumped $2-3,000 into it in two years. Now I am being told that my power steering rack is bad. It started with the seal on the power steering pump blowing and having to replace that. There was power steering fluid all over my engine. That removed the whining on the steering, but now the car is not driveable at low speeds because it has not power steering. Once it has movement (gas to the engine), it works. Without it, it is undriveable. Any suggestions. They are quoting me $1,000 to fix this, not including the $400 for the pump.

It's the pump. Mines had the exact symptoms. New pump. Never had the issue again.

It just seems a pump should not go at 38,000 miles. Can the defective pump cause the rack to go bad? I dont have the confidence to change these parts, especially on power steering. I am actually going to bring it to a dealer on MOnday. His price was $600 plus an alignment required. I love my Pontiacs but they have caused me more gray hair than my 3 kids......

It started with a lot of noise in the front end. I noticed small drops of fluid on my driveway and thought it was from my 2002 Grand Prix GTP. After that car got totaled two weeks ago by an idiot driver of another vehicle, I noticed the spot still being made and ironically at the same time the car started making noises when turning. That is when I popped the hood and saw the fluid all over the engine. The power steering fuild reservoir was empty. I filled it up, cleaned up the engine and watched. The engine was covered again in short time. I made an appointment at my shop and that evening the power steering went out completely. When the car does not have the gas pedal applying power to the engine, the power steering is gone. So when I am driving slow no under power, it has no power steering at all. Talk about a workout. When I apply gas, it has power steering. I then took it to the shop where they found the pump to have a bad seal. Replaced the pump and had power steering for 5 minutes and now it is gone again. They are going to repalce the pump again and see what happens.

A read somewhere on the Forum that there was a recall on the power steering hose. Could that have anything to do with it? How do I know if the recall was corrected on this car?