power steering pulley blows up / breaks off

yabadabadoo1026 · Post by **yabadabadoo1026** » 15 Nov 2020, 22:22

In transit from Memphis to Atlanta around Talledega , Ala in my 2001 S60 I hear a clunk and lose everything----------pull off at next exit and look under hood and my serpentine belt lying in there loose and see my pulley for the ps pump had broke off and lying at the bottom. It was a Saturday and no shops around who would of course ripped off real bad a traveler anyway. So I had a $ 525 tow bill to Atlanta which was a fortunate price cause of a guy that stopped to help me who worked at the Honda plant there and called their tow company. First tow i called wanted 900 ie what the market might bear to a desperate traveler.

i can suspect maybe why this happened but could another tell me there thoughts or confirm my suspicions. Had had no power steering for months as the fluid was leaking out at the rack and didnt want to put rack money into a 2001 so was dealing with no power steering at all-----------sure the reservoir was dry. Is there a connection between driving with no ps fluid in it and the pulley breaking off. I can rotate it at the pump where the pulley would attach so it doenst seem frozen up so I'm puzzled. I need to buy a pully---any reason to think i wont have this problem again if i dont replace the pump which is a waste of $$$ if i cant put fluid in it that doesnt leak out???????. Thoughts and suggestions where i go with this now to get it back on the road.

Post by **darrylrobert** » 15 Nov 2020, 23:15

Did i read this wrong, you allowed the fluid to drain but kept it hooked up and turning via the serpentine pulley?..If the pulley was turning with very little or no oil there would be extra stress on the pulley, causing it to break in my opinion. I think you got off lightly, i would have expected a fire ..

EDit: not sure what you mean by loosing everything, did it take out the timing belt?..if not you can still still the car for a fair distance.

Post by **oragex** » 16 Nov 2020, 00:43

You need to also spin the other pulleys, the tensioner alternator and ac compressor, see how easy (or loose) they spin. The alternator needs to also spin like this www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_Pzmj0jxfw
If those fine, buy a used pump only from a 01-03. However without juice a pump can't last forever, there's small metal tabs that move inside with speed so you may want to open the back cover and remove all metal tabs, that may make it last longer www.youtube.com/watch?v=AExeeo00QOQ

From the diagram, it doesn't look like you can put a by pass belt, the alternator pulley doesn't look to grab enough on the belt for rotation counter-clockwise - clutch pulley
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: Power steering bypass.jpg (52.32 KiB) Viewed 1470 times

Post by **darrylrobert** » 16 Nov 2020, 04:18

the easiest thing i would do is fill the new pump with oil but block off the high pressure line. I replaced the steering rack on my 2001 xc70 and it was quite easy.

Post by **abscate** » 16 Nov 2020, 04:40

If you do the bypass the alternator has to turn counterclockwise ccw, as before, and it needs a good wrap on the pulley, too.

Electricity otherwise flows backwards, the lights will put out dark, the heater turns into AC, the wipers will make your glass wet, everything will just be backwards. The stereo will play the music of the Devil.

Ok, seriously, the alternator has a free wheeling pulley which only drives the alternator turning ccw.

Post by **oragex** » 16 Nov 2020, 07:49

darrylrobert wrote: ↑16 Nov 2020, 04:18 the easiest thing i would do is fill the new pump with oil but block off the high pressure line. I replaced the steering rack on my 2001 xc70 and it was quite easy.

Quite a job.. detaching the exhaust on the turbo is more difficult, supporting the engine, rear mount, working around the brake line near the exhaust and converter, stuck lines on the SMI rack, attaching the new lines... a good job. Worth replacing the sway bar while there

Post by **darrylrobert** » 16 Nov 2020, 18:30

I didnt touch the exhaust, i dropped the sub frame...easy

Post by **SuperHerman** » 16 Nov 2020, 22:36

My guess is the lack of oil (power steering fluid) caused the power steering pump to fail as it seized up.

You need to assure no debris is in the system lines, reservoir and steering rack. Me - I would detach the lines from the rack and inspect the lines at the pump for any signs of metal. Then flush the lines really well with eye for contamination - rack to pump side. Do the same with all the lines and the reservoir. If you see nothing you got lucky (although with no fluid that helps). As your rack was toast the added cost is the same.

Source as many used parts as you can.

As mentioned you have to check every pulley on the serp side to make sure they didn't get damaged. Wouldn't hurt to also check the timing belt for the same.