Lost Power Steering

[bluepunk18]

My power steering started cutting out last night, and today I have to muscle the car around at low speeds. I can't see any leaks in the power steering lines, but perhaps the pump is bad? My 89' LX is more of a winter beater than most of the cars here. She's got 211K miles. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[AZmike]

If there are no leaks my first guess would be a slipping belt, but I would expect that to make enough noise to be easy to recognize. The pump is pretty simple and usually just ends up leaking when someone doesn't use a Honda-specific PSF. I suppose the relief valve could be stuck open though.

There are rebuilt kits available for under $20. If you take yours apart and find a serious problem a junkyard unit shouldn't be much either. If you do end up with a junkyard pump you should probably replace the shaft seal--the two I tried both leaked.

Take a few minutes to search through old threads--there is a lot of helpful information there.

[Dr_Snooz]

Welcome to the forum, by the way!

[bluepunk18]

Thanks for the info. And its great to find such a useful forum. I will start looking through older threads. I did a little investigating today, in proper light, and it seems there is a leak after all. It seems to be where the lines connect to the steering rack.