I have a 1998 Volvo S70 that'sbeen well maintained. When I bought it 4 years old,there was minor noise during steering,almost unnoticeable. 7 years later, the noise increased significantly over the past few weeks and there's some difficulty in steering. The shop that's always worked on it here specializes in Volvos and has always done goodfair priced work. They looked at it and felt there was a leak in the power steering rack and that a re-built rack should be installed. They mentioned they could bleed the air out of the system and that should take care of the problem temporarily, but that it would comeback and driving it further could risk the pump,etc. My question is this...the power steering fluid level in the reservoir is normal. Is there a chance that a small amount of air has entered the system, but the steering rack is fine and bleeding air out is all that's needed? Not sure if it could be a factor, but we have rough brick streets in our town and I've had a fair amount of front end repair done, some within the past few months.Could the shop have inadvertantly allowed some air into the system during earlier repair? Hate to have to find $850 right now!

 

I would have the system bleed first. If that fixes the problem, you are golden. If not, well, then you will need to put in a new rack. I would think the rack would start to make noise again before it would cause damage to anything else. I mean, you have been driving like this for 3 years now and the pump is still working.

 

Thanks, we're goingto try that...fingers crossed!

 

I don't know if its of any use to you but I had a bad noise from my power steering a year ago which turned out to be a bad leak in the steering rack. Lazily I opted for a bottle of Lucas Power Steering Fluid. Then a second bottle, and a week later no leak or noise and its been fine ever since.