Power Steering Problems

Hello,

This is my first post here, so if I missed something or posted in the wrong spot, please let me know.

I drive a 2002 Jetta TDI with 370 thousand miles. I have owned it for the past 2 years and put about 45 thousand on it. It is my first TDI so I am still new to diesels.

I am having a strange problem with my power steering. Sometimes the wheel feels like it is sticking or going over a lump when I am turning or making slight adjustments to stay in my lane.


A little while ago I started hearing power steering pump whine when I cornered. It had been a while since I checked the fluid (I know, I am a horrible person). The fluid was low so I went to O'Reilly's and got some of the "European Power Steering fluid." I filled it, problem solved.

Then I realized that I had never added fluid to this car and I didn't know what was originally in there so later that week, I got a couple more bottles of the European Power steering fluid. I pumped out the reservoir, filled it back up with new fluid and zigzagged down my road going stop to stop to circulate fluid. I repeated until I emptied the bottles and the fluid seemed close enough in color (although not exactly right). I called it good and moved on with life.

However shortly after that I started having steering problems. The symptoms are strange:

- No power steering pump whining and groaning
- Occasionally there is what sounds like belt squeal
- Sometimes the steering is hard to turn one direction or the other
- If I turn past a hard spot that direction, it is easy to turn back and the problem is typically gone for a bit and I can traverse that area freely
- The "obstacle" seems to change sides randomly
- sometimes after turning the car off, I get a long squeak/whine noise like pressure releasing somewhere
- Typically the problem does not manifest for the first 2-3 minutes of driving

My thoughts (probably wrong) is that some piece of a gasket or rubber seal is loose in the fluid and is going through the pump or something and occasionally blocking passages. Or possibly the remaining fluid caused problems with the new fluid and gelled or something. I don't know if I caused it or if it was coincidence.

If anyone knows what is going on or what I have to do to fix it, that would be awesome!

Thanks,
Clevenger

Hey all,

It's been a month now. No one answered so here an update in case anyone cares some time in the future.

After waiting a little while to see if the problem was going to go away I decided to flush the system. I bought CHF11S fluid on amazon. I flushed the system and there were indeed some chunks of rubber in the fluid so definitely lost some sort of seal.

The flush helped some, not much though. Then I purchased a Magnefine inline filter for hydraulic systems that has both magnetic filtering and some sort of filter medium. It seemed to help but after a little longer it was behaving poorly again. I was previously thinking that the steering inconsistency may have been due to particulate matter going around and around. This seems to have disproved that. Not positive about that though.

I just replaced the power steering pump today. The housing on the old one looked in the same exact condition (not newer) as the area it mounted to, so it may have the full 370,000 miles on it. Not sure though. I figured it was old so even if it isn't the problem, it won't hurt to have a new one. So far I have driven it for 15 minutes around the neighborhood and on the highway and there are no problems yet.

If more problems develop or continue, I suppose I will drop the subframe and replace the rack.

If anyone has input or advice, that would be great. Otherwise I will keep on guessing and eventually I will just replace everything. That should fix it

Thanks for the support,
Clevenger

For what it is worth ..

The PS pump on the 2002 ALH engine (same as on yours) in my Vanagon has had about every brand fluid known to man put in it (even from Dollar General Store). There was a leak at the PS rack that I neglected for quite some time. Seems it leaked whether driving or parked. I constantly added fluid over about 3 months. Not one time did the system act up other than when low on fluid.

Yeah, if your problem is not solved, a PS rack should be readily available at a junk yard. I've been in several U-pick Junk Yards and seems the PS rack was always the one thing still on these vehicles.

Welcome to the TDI Club .... come see us often!

Hey guys,
Hopefully this is the last update for this thread. Thanks AndyBees for your response. It is good to know that almost anything can go through this system.
Shortly after my last post, problems resumed. Steering got worse and I started to zigzag down the road sometimes.
I decided to replace the rack and pinion with a new one. I figured that if it was an age related problem i didn't really want to swap out one old rack and pinion for another from the u-pull-it place.
Installation of new rack went well. Also replaced the ball joints because they were very very bad.
After the job was done, I disassembled the old rack. It was reeeaaally bad in there. The rack and pinion teeth were heavily pitted and worn away (see picture). The bottom area that doesn't get much fluid circulation had filled with water and turned into rust sludge/milkshake stuff. Over time the corrosion had destroyed the teeth and was making my fluid look like it was full of glitter. Both the roller bearing and the normal bearing on the center shaft were seized. and there was a bushing like material to keep things aligned that had disintegrated. The pinion had so much slop it could rotate almost 1/10th of a turn back and forth without causing movement.

I am not sure how the water got in. This is my first VW TDI. Is this a normal failure at this age?
Thanks!