Steering Trouble

My sister has a 1987 Camry

She called me today and told me she was driving and her steering failed. She said the wheel was really hard to turn or maybe even locked?

She applied the brakes and came to a stop and the steering started to work again. This has happened two times in the last week.

I haven't looked at the car yet, I will see it this weekend.

So a little bit of history.

1) About 4 years ago her car was stolen. They jammed the ignition lock. She got the car back. The key starts the car fine, almost any key starts the car since the ignition cylinder lock is broken. Once the car is started the key can be pulled out without turning the key back to the off position. Also once or twice the starter engaged while the car was running. All pointing to a broken ignition cylinder lock. I am just wondering if the steering column lock suffered damage when the ignition lock was broken when the car was stolen.

2) About a year ago my sister poured, topped off her power steering fluid with motor oil. I caught it within a week or so. I removed all the fluid in the power steering reservoir with a turkey baster, refilled the reservoir and started the car, turned the steering wheel side to side a few times with the car running and then I removed the fluid again with the baster. I repeated this about 10x or so until I used up a gallon of ATF.

So I am thinking I should have removed the hose drained the system and ran the car for a few seconds with the hose disconnected. The filled it up with fresh ATF and flushed it again. This would have been better then what I did.

So now wondering what is going on with her steering. At first I thought the steering column is locking do to the damage from the theft. However that was 4 years ago and I would think it would have showed up before now. So now am thinking power steering failure due to the motor oil? Pump? Rack?

Any ideas?

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Pump, Rack, steering column, ignition lock. Unlikely to be motor oil.

Also, she should not be driving this until it's fixed. If she continues to drive this, she may kill herself or someone else.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff

Could be the power rack or the pump, but like Jeff mentioned, if it is in fact locking, she should not drive it until it's repaired. You will probably have to drive it yourself to determine that.

It sounds like you did all you can do when she contaminated the system. Even if you took of the hoses it's really hard to get it all out of the power rack, and you don't want to run the pump dry.

It's a twenty one year old car and perhaps just due to normal usage one or more components has either failed or just worn out to a point where it's intermittent. I hope it's something a simple as a belt or an adjustment for you.

Reply to
user

1) It is possible that the steering column lock engaged. If this was the case, jiggling the key in the ignition should have released the steering wheel. 2) While is it possible that the contaminated PS fluid caused a problem, I doubt it. A more likely problem would have been noise from the PS pump or leaks somewhere. 3) Another possibility is that a u-joint on the steering column has become corroded and is binding. When this happens, people describe the movement of the steering wheel as "notchy" or "jerky" or suddenly difficult to turn. I don't remember if the 87 Camry has 1 or 2 joints. There is probably 1 where the steering column comes out of the firewall and there may be another where the column meets the steering rack. Take a look - if it is very rusty, it should be replaced. I think the column has to be replaced as an assembly from the firewall to the rack

There could be a problem with the pump, rack, or other linkages, but I would check the lock and u-joints first.

Reply to
Ray O

It happened TWICE? Who in their right mind would continue to drive a vehicle, in which the steering failed, without having the fault corrected?

Reply to
Mike hunt

I have two cars that do this, but the steering doesn't lock up on me.

What you might try is to sit with the car OFF, and jiggle the wheel and see if it locks when it shouldn't. Better yet, lift the front wheels (or take it to a shop with a lift), start the car and run the wheel from lock to lock.

If it is the lock mecahism catching when it shouldn't, replace the locks. A complete set for my '85 Corolla was $125.

Reply to
Hachiroku

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