Power Steering

[Wildhound]

As you may know from my thread on GD I just finished an engine replacement. Everything was running smoothly until I tried the steering!

Obviously after taking apart the whole front end of the car the power steering needed refilling and bleeding, so I went ahead and did that and the steering was back to normal... until I tried to drive.

I let the engine warm up and then revved up to MIVEC a few times to check that everything was in order and there were no odd sounds, then I went for a drive down the street and I hadn't gone five feet when there was an odd sound. I stopped and cut the engine immediately.

The sound turned out to be that of the power steering pump pumping air because all the fluid had blasted out into the engine bay. I couldn't find where it had come from because it came out with such force it just coated everything in Dextron II. So I went and checked all of the connections, tightened all the hoses, refilled it and bled it through and tried again.

The exact same thing happened again and I'm none the wiser. Is there anyone with a good knowledge of the power steering system who can think of what might cause this? All of the connections and hoses are nice and tight and now I'm completely dumbfounded.

Could something like this be caused by air left in the system? Or could it have something to do with the shortened belt I'm using since removing the air con (which was so tight I didn't need a tensioner but had to remove the power steering pump to fit it!)?

Any help would be hugely appreciated, cheers!

[Myfeckin FTO]

All I can think of is that you have a split or hole in one of the PS pipes.

[Wildhound]

Unfortunately I think you might be right. I'm just hoping there's something simpler that I missed along the way.

I'll wrap all the pipes in something absorbant tomorrow and refill it. That should show me where it's coming from.