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Ok, experts, here's one I need some help with

Woke up my old 308 from its slumbers today ready for another Scottish winter, in fact this had already been done twice before with no issues, but the car was not moved

Today however I wanted to get it to my house from my lock up, no good having a car with winter tyres, good battery, already to go when it is 12 miles away when the snow hits!!

So fired her up, fine, jump in, hit reverse, and bingo steering feels as though it is locked, a good old heave, great for my two newly repaired hernia's and we have movement, but blimey is it heavy, then normal , then heavy, so the 12 mile drive to Jenner Towers was like driving an old threepenny bit!!, clearly not pleasant or safe

Thoughts please, pump going out to lunch??

Yes, I have checked for leaks and lack of fluid , all is good in these departments, I'm not wanting ton spend a huge amount on the car, just enough to see it through another winter would be the aim

Still got a belt on the ps pump pulley ??

Retaining bolts sheared on ps pulley ??

Rob,

I don't know if it's the same issue but I had a problem once with my x308. One day the PAS decided it would just pack up. I then had a very difficult (and at times scary!) journey to get the car home from Central London to Kent. In retrospect, I shouldn't have done it, but we all do silly things at times! It turned out that the pump had just somehow stopped functioning. A cheap 2nd-hand pump and I was up and running again. Cheaper than expected, in the end.

You might find that it works again next time you start it. If not, I would guess pump rather than rack. I once had a Rover SD1 3500 where the PAS decided one day to work when turning left but not when turning right. Now that was frightening! Huge effort to turn to right followed by massive over-correction as I turned to the left! I drove home looking like the lead-footed Jeremy Clarkson testing an SL63 Mercedes! It turned out that was a seized valve in one part of the rack.

Good luck, Rob

Paul

Pump was my thoughts, but it is intermittent, and as you say quite scary, could be fun in the ice and snow, a call to Uncle Neville tomorrow I reckon

Still got a belt on the ps pump pulley ??

Retaining bolts sheared on ps pulley ??

Belt on, bolts good

if sat for a long time, the serpentine belt can go a little stiff and keep its shape while going round, this has the effect of making the pump ' stall ' some times resulting in heavy steering, this is also a symptom of a slack serpentine belt tensioner , you sometimes get a knocking or clanking from the tensioner due to the stiff belt before things can warm up/free up ,

other than that its a failed pump i suppose


BB

Hadn't thought of that one BB, however a 12 mile drive didn't improve things much, so I will check the belt in the morning, but I'm still think "pump"

Hadn't thought of that one BB, however a 12 mile drive didn't improve things much, so I will check the belt in the morning, but I'm still think "pump"

As it is intermittent as you pointed out in initial post then the presumption is that the pump must be working some of the time and therefore not failed as in rotor sheared or similar.

As bb points out with the belt theory it maybe stop / starting the pulley... Maybe if you get the belt off you could check if the pulley is still engaging with the shaft / rotor drive. You can check tensioner at the same time

I ended up getting a rebuilt pump for my xk8 after the gasket on the pump itself failed...but then you have no leaks..

So, what was the steering problem ?

oldtimer, on start up after 6 months of inactivity, the pas appeared to have no assistance, as the car was moved it became "lumpy" very lumpy like driving a threepenny bit!!, 12 miles and the car got warm, the steering remained "lumpy", not nice, the weather here and my health atm prevent a further look see

Rob,
Look after yourself and get better soon, then perhaps re - look at the steering problem

Oldtimer

fixed, me and the car, two weeks of nothing and four weeks gentle getting back into things for me, the car was an easy fix, new pas pump, well a used one, £57 delivered and an hour at my local guy to fit it

Excellent
Did you investigate the reason for failure?

Back to full strength on the fleet then ?

yep, fleet at full bore, me , I'm getting there slowly

reason for failure the old pump had gone "lumpy" so possibly a bearing failure, but it was in the bin straight away