For thoes of you who have read my older postes you know about laundry list of issues i've had with my car.Last night i just got done replacing both control arms and tensioner for the serpentine belt. It took me close to an hour to get my car running, it would turn and just barely fire, after a while it started to fire more and finally enough to keep itslef running. I've had engine issues for a couple months and the check engine light finally came on last nite so i can run the error codes and see what it says. I need hlep brainstorming what is going on w/ my steering. i'll have the wheel straight and the car goes straight, then all of the sudden, the wheel is about 25-30 degrees to the left and the car is still going straight. and then the wheel will go straight again. I'm sure I missed something when i put my suspension back to gether, any ideas what i may have missed?

 

I forgot to mention that both sides of my front axle have been replace as well.

 

Did you check for play in the front end after assembling everything?

It might be something internally in the rack.

 

Oh, glorious day... after almost two months of diagnosing one problem after the other, i have my car back on the road. She runs great, handles better than she ever has since i bought her, and no more strange noises coming from my front suspension. i have only had two small problems since i got her back from the mechanic last night: 1. I had to let her idle for almost an hour to heat up and melt the inch or so of ice on all the glass 2. driver side lock was frozen this morning. I'm just happy to be driving my own car again, it feels great.

 

Glad it is back and running good now.

 

Ditto, Glad it is back on the road. What casued the funky steering?

 

OK, I made it out of the woods for a couple days. yesterday, sometimes i had power steering, sometimes i didn't. at first it seemed like my belt would squeak when the steering wasn't working right, but after the belt stopped squeaking it still tuned hard. i'm pretty sure it's my steering pump, since the rack only has about 100 miles onit. i checked the resivoir, it's not low so there is no leak. hopefully i can repair the pump instead of replacing it. now it's time to see if fixing lawnmowers at a country club has finally done me some good.

 

Is it possible that you have air in the system from replacing the rack??

 

it's possible, but in my experience w/ hydraulic systems (i'll admit is almost all with linear piston systems and not with the circular system that my steering uses) whenever there is an air pocket it shows itself right away. my steering worked perfect for a little over two days before this problem arose.anyone, if i am wrong, please let me know. the steering is starting to behave more like it should, but it's not quite all there.

 

Usually with these systems after a small ride around the block all the air is out.

 

i've heard that the steering system on my car doesn't use power steering fluid, it in fact used automatic transmisison fluid. is that true? if so, i beleive the machanic i took it to used power steering fluid when they replaced the rack. how would i go about draining that and replacing it with the correct fluid?

 

Yes it is supposed to have ATF in there. You should be able to pull the return hose and crank the car over and pump the old out and pour in new till it is full with the new.

 

could the wrong fluid in there be causing it to act the way it has? or am i still looking at replacing/fixing the pump?

 

I have seen alot of people run power steering fluid in them with no problems but you never know.

 

Wrong fluid could cause the problem you are experiencing. At the very least I would give it a shot and change out the old fluid. What have you got to lose?

 

OK a couple days ago i thought my pump has siezed up and broke the belt. got the car to my folks house running off the battery. finally got a chance to pop the hood today and take a look. the pump has fallen apart. i got the pump out of the monting bracket and ordered a new one. OMG i hope at least done fixing this thing for a while. at least long enough for me to give my wife's car the tune up i't been needing for about 6 months now. on the plus side, i'm rapidly running out of things to fix on my car, it won't be long and everything will be a new part.

 

In case if you wish to do a major tune up on your 850:

https://volvoforums.com/m_48928/tm.htm

Happy New Year,


JPN