Hitchhiking to class until 98 S70 power steering fixed

[hamhead]

Calling all Volvo ninjas. I'm appreciative for the fluid tip. If I could get an answer to below questions then I would be even that much more grateful:

• Should the rack have been addressed from the beginning?

• If so, I appreciate mistakes are made - what is customary in this instance?

• Should I expect to pay full price or some kind of reduced rate for the 2nd go round of replacing the rack considering their initial misdiagnosis?

[skloon]

I think if the boots are full of fluid they should have noticed when they did the pump, however when the rack is gone I find the pump is usually trashed as well- don't know which went first so you may not get a lot off - I am amazed a pump is 500 yet a rack is 750 the pump takes 30 minutes the rack oh lord days and days- okay at least 4 hours and they should replace the outer tie rods at that time too

[Clemens]

From my experience with a golf mark iv i'd say: whenever the steering system is screwed up replace pump and rack wirh the best parts available. Or just a used pump. Everything else is a waste of money. On that golf iv I tried to save money and first replaced the rack with a vw rebuilt unit, then the pump, then the rack again, then the return line and when it started leaking again i sold it. My trusted long time mechanic was puzzled too, and he said he checked carefully but couldn't find the culprit.

To sum this up, i guess it is not the shop's fault, the pump may have taken out the rack or vice versa. Tough to bitw the bullet on this, but less than a few payments on a new whatever car.

You can try to talk the shop to drop the labor, but the parts are on your side to pay, i guess.

[hamhead]

Should I gather from the silence that I'm SOL and bite the bullet with the $700 rack replacement?

[hamhead]

ok, this is weird. After submitting my post the screen refreshed and I saw there were updated responses I had yet to see. That's one of two things. Either my cache is sticking, which I don't think is the case or this website has server side caching that's not flushing properly.

As a matter of fact, I think I've seen on this forum where some techs became frustrated that they'd already answered questions several posts back when the poster asked for an update. Just an FYI

[abscate]

Its likely a misdiagnosis but you certainly can't meet any burden of proof for a claim.

When you take a car to a garage, even a good one, you get an educated guess as to fault but ultimately you authorize the work they recommend. IF they guess wrong, you still pay. To be fair, they have to pay the people who do the work, even if the diagnosis is wrong but in good faith.

If you don't ever want to pay for this, you know the solution....break out the tools...

[scot850]

Unfortunately I have to agree with abscate. The proof is hard/impossible to make. In support of any repair shop they make a best guess in some cases. Their only issue is missing the boots full of oil. Now again, the new pump may have actually caused failing seals to give up with the higher pressure it output, so even the boots may have been dry when they checked. Trouble is we will never know. While $500 does seem steep to me for the pump versus the $750 for the rack (assuming it includes parts) then the rack replacement seems cheap as you have to drop the rear of the sub-frame to install it. Aftermarket or refurbished racks are a crap shoot, so make sure what their warranty covers and over what timeframe. Most parts suppliers only warrant the part. Garages should pick up some or all the labor should the part fail if they supply it.

Volvo racks are expensive as are their labor rates but they do have a lifetime warranty on parts and labor when they supply the parts. FCP has a lifetime warranty on their parts also, but not on labor.

Neil.

[jvl]

Hi all,

on my previous Land Rover I did have good experiences using a Stop Leak product in an ATF system. It was litteraly pooring out of the valve housing but two treatments with the stop leak did an amazing job! After a year or so, it started to deteriorate again and the steering would lock when driving through puddles (in other words: when water got into the system....) Not a good thing, and the car was sold....

Hope some stop leak does work out for you, as Lee said it would not make your problem worse and is a cheap 'try'.

Joost

[RetroF7]

The problem with your steering probably wasn't the pump or the rack. The new pump produced enough pressure to hurt the seals in the the rack. As others have said, get some steering stop leak and add it to the system and hope for the best. This may avoid having to replace the rack. Now to fix your original issue - find the u-joint on the steering column where it goes into the rack - you can see it looking over the back of the engine under the brake booster. Once you find it, hose it down with penetrating oil. Jacking the car up and turning the steering lock to lock while doing this helps the process. In a few days, do it again. In about a week of normal driving and oiling that u-joint every other day, your steering will be good.

[hamhead]

Thanks for your help, guys. We're going to try RetroF7 solution and go from there.