Power Steering Explosion & Repairs

Here are some pictures of the power steering explosion that happened on my car while driving to Indianapolis for a car gathering. As I was driving on the interstate, I noticed that the power inverter beeped to indicate low voltage (I was using the power inverter to run the laptop for logging). I then looked at the gauge cluster and saw that the engine temperature was pegged high and that the check engine light was on. I glanced at the logger and saw that the temperature was 270°F, so I immediately let off the gas, slowed down, and pulled to the shoulder. The next exit was only a few hundred yards ahead so I turned the heater on (to pull some heat out of the engine bay) and slowly continued until I could get the car to the exit. As soon as there was sufficient room on the shoulder, I shut the car off.

When I opened the hood, I noticed that it was really hot and that there was some type of fluid sprayed everywhere. The main accessory belt that runs the alternator, water pump, and power steering pump was completely gone, and the power steering pulley was sitting in the lower part of the engine bay and not attached to anything. When I looked closer, there were cracks in the power steering pulley and the center hub was still attached to the power steering pump. Also, the power steering pump reservoir had a hole in it from where the pulley rubbed against it, and so the power steering reservoir was completely empty (this was most of the fluid that I saw in the engine bay). Also, since the engine had gotten so hot, the coolant had overflowed out of the coolant overflow/catch container which was the rest of the fluid that I saw everywhere. I thought about trying to get repair parts and fix it right there but I knew that I at least needed a power steering pump, reservoir, pulley, and a belt and I figured that I would likely not be able to find all of those parts, so I called a tow truck and got the car towed home :( .

I was curious to see if I could figure out when this happened and fortunately I was logging at the time, so I went back and looked at the log. It took exactly one minute for the temperature to go from 207°F (normal operating temperature) to 270°F, which is when I noticed the problem and it took me an additional minute to get the car off of the highway and shut off.























I purchased a used power steering pulley, reservoir, and pump. I also purchased a new serpentine belt, some power steering fluid, and a power steering pulley installer/remover tool. I had some difficulty when installing the pulley because the bolt on the installer tool seemed to slip when bottoming out on the pump snout, so I tightened it down very hard to get it to hold. After getting the pulley installed, I could not get the bolt out, so I decided to leave it since it wouldn't hurt anything, but it does look a little odd.









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