Intermittent P/S

[Scalmanini Steve]

Mike, I didn't ask and you didn't volunteer if
simply changing the pump solved your problem of
pumping foaming Pentosin out of the reservoir.

My symptom continues like that.  P/S is intermittant;
fluid level remains about 1/3 full and returns to
that level shortly after adding any.  If I refill,
the fluid above that level is gone within a few
minutes of driving.  Brake boost is normal.

Blau refuses to honor ZF's 3-year warranty on the
pump.  ZF says their 3-year warranty supercedes
Blau's 1-year so their going to have a little chat
about that with their distributor for Blau.
(' can't wait to hear how that goes.)

Regardless of that, ZF is willing to replace the
pump themselves if Blau won't, --IF-- that's the
problem.  But since air is possibly being pumped
into the reservoir, they assume it's getting in
somewhere, so there must be a leak in the system.
I think if there was a leak, the fluid level would
continue to drop after reaching it's current level
of ~1/3 full, but it's not.

So, when you had this same symptem, did you solve
it by only changing the pump?  If so, was the
pump dry underneath, such that no fluid had been
leaking from it, and assumedly no air had been
leaking into it, and therefore (Sherlock speaking
here) the problem had to be only with the pump?

Maybe, on the other hand, the pump is somehow making
the fluid foam on its own (i.e. without any air
from outside the system).  I have no idea if this
is possible, and being hydraulic fluid, I thought
it couldn't.

Anyway, let me know how you fixed yours,

Thanks,

Steve

PS to Bernie: the guy at ZF mentioned in passing
in our conversation today that when the rack was
at either maximum end of travel, an overpressure
relief valve would kick in to limit the pressure
on the seals that so commonly fail.  That was the
first I'd heard of this valve so I thought I'd pass
it along.

--- Mike Miller <mikemilr at blackfoot.net> wrote:
>
> This sounds a lot like what mine did when the PS
> pump started going. It took
> extra effort to get the wheel to start turning, then
> it felt fine. After
> about a week of this, I had foaming pentosin coming
> out the top of the cap.
>
> mike miller
> helmville mt
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Scalmanini Steve" <sscalmanini at yahoo.com>
> To: <200q20v at audifans.com>
> Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2002 4:17 AM
> Subject: Intermittent P/S
>
>
> > Does anyone know what the likely problem is for
> power
> > steering that has been intermittent starting five
> days
> > ago.  Sometimes it seems fine, but most of the
> time
> > it's very hard to turn.
>
>



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