Power Steering Groaning Ever So Slightly

[geokilla]

Heard the noise from the outside of my car today while getting the AC recharged. High pitched, loud noise. Ugh.

Since I don't have anything to clean that bearing, I'm not gonna mess with that right now.

[geokilla]

^yep, sounds like this to me too:

http://volvospeed.com/volvo_repairs_how ... _lube.html

After 3 years, I finally attempted the steering bearing grease repair. No idea if I screwed up or not but during a quick road test around my neighbourhood, everything seemed fine and felt normal. I'll know when I drive to work today. Of course it's still groaning but it should be groaning less now?

The bearing sits in between the hard circular plastic at the bottom of the steering column and the boot correct? Judging from the last photo, it looks like it but I just want to make sure. It took more force than anticipated to get it down there and it seemed to expand so it may or may not have retained it's original circular shape. Unless I pushed it down too far. It doesn't seem like it sits in between the shaft and the hard plastic, since otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get it out in the first place.

Do I need to use a ton of grease? I put on enough when I had the bearing out but when I put it back in, some of it was gone and got on the boot and/or shaft. I didn't clean it particularly well either. Just got some wet paper towels and wiped it down the best I can.

[jblackburn]

^yep, sounds like this to me too:

http://volvospeed.com/volvo_repairs_how ... _lube.html

After 3 years, I finally attempted the steering bearing grease repair. No idea if I screwed up or not but during a quick road test around my neighbourhood, everything seemed fine and felt normal. I'll know when I drive to work today. Of course it's still groaning but it should be groaning less now?

The bearing sits in between the hard circular plastic at the bottom of the steering column and the boot correct? Judging from the last photo, it looks like it but I just want to make sure. It took more force than anticipated to get it down there and it seemed to expand so it may or may not have retained it's original circular shape. Unless I pushed it down too far. It doesn't seem like it sits in between the shaft and the hard plastic, since otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get it out in the first place.

Do I need to use a ton of grease? I put on enough when I had the bearing out but when I put it back in, some of it was gone and got on the boot and/or shaft. I didn't clean it particularly well either. Just got some wet paper towels and wiped it down the best I can.

Should be enough, and yes, that's the correct one.

I really only noticed noise from mine from there in cold weather - would not be likely to hear it here in 90+F temperatures.

[geokilla]

Thought I'd give an update. Noise is back and it's worse than ever before. It's so bad now that the groans can be heard even during moderate to high speed turns. If I turn the steering wheel 90 to 120 degrees to the left while doing roughly 40Km/H, the car will groan all throughout that turn. Loudly. Plus it has felt like it's catching onto something for the past few years. Took it to a Volvo mechanic to get it checked while I got the spark plugs changed and it turns out that my steering rack is the culprit. Good news is that it's not leaking. Bad news is that it's one of the few reasons why my steering is so noisy apparently. Any type of pressure put on the steering rack will result in lots of noise. I guess that's what happens when the car has over 320k km and so many parts are from 15 years ago.