Thread: power steering

Having an issue with my steering on my 98' gt.

I replaced my rack about 4 months ago.
I hit a bump on an "on ramp" and heard some metal hit the ground steering becomes complete garbage shaky and sticky almost like sand got in my rack and my rpms slightly increase and I could feel a loss of power.

I inspected the whole under-body and rack could not see anything missing or broke also checked power steering fluid all good no leaks.

my question is, would a bad power steering pump cause these issues? and is it unusual for a pump to stop functioning without whining?

thanks.

Did you check to see if the power steering pulley was still there? How about the belt? The sudden increase of RPM's almost sounds like it broke at the shaft on the power steering pump and chucked the pulley, hence the metal sound hitting the ground.

pulley is still there. so is the belt like i drove it home looked over everything no physical indications, fluids all good. Im thinking another bad rack.

Ok, so we verified the pump is there and good. And I assume you verified that the bolts holding the rack to the car are still there.

You say you replaced the rack 4 months ago? What brand was it? Was it a used rack? I've heard bad things about using any other brand besides OEM on these cars but have never tried it myself. Does the steering seem to be harder to turn one direction vs. another?

When I did mine I installed an OEM Magnasteer rack from GM and haven't had an issue. Of course it helped that I found it for the same price as a reman off-brand rack