PS Pump Cap blowing off
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Laughing Gas
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 898
Likes: 23
From: Tucson
PS Pump Cap blowing off
Hey all, my power steering pump camp keeps coming off. Almost like it's got too much pressure. I'm stumped as to why but it makes a mess whenever it comes off. Any ideas?
Hotshot
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 11,286
Likes: 263
From: North of Greenville
One of the plastic clips may be slightly "stretched", cracked, or broken. I had one which did that a couple of times and finally bought a new cap... no more trouble.
Pressure should not be building up inside, because IIRC, the cap has a tiny vent hole in it which is why you cover the cap with a plastic bag when washing down the engine bay to keep water out of the PS system.
Pressure should not be building up inside, because IIRC, the cap has a tiny vent hole in it which is why you cover the cap with a plastic bag when washing down the engine bay to keep water out of the PS system.
Freshman User
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 31
Likes: 0
Just out of curiosity, did you add fluid to your reservoir prior to your having problems? I just experienced this same problem and the culprit was adding transmission fluid to the reservoir instead of power steering fluid. The transmission fluid is higher viscosity and the pump built enough additional pressure to blow the cap off. The simple fix was to loosen a hose on the rack and drain out all the fluid and then refill with power steering fluid. Work the wheel from lock to lock several times to purge out all the air.
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When you turn the wheel to full lock and you hear the PS pump working hard it's pumping more fluid which comes back through the return line from the master brake cylinder through the rubber line that comes directly back to the reservoir.
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Laughing Gas
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 898
Likes: 23
From: Tucson
The cap blows off sometime while driving. I checked the vent hole and it's super small. I was able to push a paperclip through the vent hole but there was some resistance. Hopefully that's the issue. The pump has been whining more lately and the truck has a tad over 200,000 miles on it so I'm wondering if the pump may be on it's way out. Sorry for the delay in response. Water pump went out on the girlfriends car so had to replace that.