Power Steering Fluid Shooting From Cap!

[fawcett]

I dont know why or when it happens, but power steering fluid is shooting from the hole in the cap of my power steering filler neck. Has anyone ever had this? Its shooting a lot, its all over my hood, intake, fuse box....
I dont know what to do or how to fix this.
-fawcett


1995 gts, frpp 340bhp 302, d&d t56, brembos, full mallory ignition system, full exhaust, fluidyne (new), projectors(worst money spent) and most of the bolt ons.

 

[MysteryMachine]

Mine was doing that too not sure if it still is though. that was before i took it out and painted it and i only noticed it when the car was off and the wheel was being moved

 

[HISSIN50]

MM is right on. It will do it if you turn the wheel without the motor running. The rack is forcing fluid out as you turn the wheel, but the pump is not turning or replacing that displaced fluid. The result is the reservoir overfills and squirts out the vent.

 

[zenboy99]

Ford power steering is known for that. If you run a short belt at the track that bypasses the power steering you'll find fluid all over your engine bay.

 

[fawcett]

Sooo if this is happening while the car is running what should i do? i also have my idle at like 1400rpm's bc it wont idle any lower. could this problem have an effect on the shooting fluid?
would crank case pressure do this?
-fawcett

 

[HISSIN50]

Is the reservoir overfilled? WIth the car running, the reservoir is on the low pressure side of the system - fluid should not come out of the cap unless the system is overfilled or the pump is cavitating (I cant see how that could happen).
Are you sure the fluid is not coming out of a fitting instead?

Good luck.

 

[fawcett]

it is clearly comming out of the little vent hole at the top of the cap. it shoots like a water gun. now i have not seen it happen. it has always happened while the hood is closed and while i am behind the wheel. but when i open the hood i can see that it shoots up-on to the underside of my hood, and it shoots all the way back to my power steering pump on the firewall.
so it shoots pretty far and i really dont like that. it gets all over my fuse box and new mallory digital hi fire VI ignition box among other things. i am thinking of removing some of the fluid (with whatever i can get in there to take it out) to see if this keeps up. i really dont understand this though. i have not added any steering fluid to my car. the last time anything has been done to my suspension is when i had a speed shop put a new power steering rack in my car. but that was over 2 1/2 yrs a go. anyways that is the last time that area has been touched so i am still baffled by this.
-fawcett

 

[HISSIN50]

So the fluid is spraying out the vent while the car idles? Crap man, that aint good. I could not tell you a fix for that - eventually the system will run dry and it will be fixed.
If the high pressure hose clogged, it could have temporarily drained the rack into the reservoir (but not enough fresh fluid is pumped out) so it overflows under pressure. But the power assist would go away in short order.
Hmmmmmm.

 

[MysteryMachine]

maybe your pump is just plain shot. I was actually thinking abotu theis thread while i was workign on my car i was turning the spindles and i didn't have any sign of anything that sprayed out maybe draining it out when i painted it fixed it

 

[fawcett]

if it was shot would it be harder to steer? bc its not, its the same feel as its always been. i am thinking of using some electrical tape and seeing if that would blow off from the pressure. it would give me an idea of how much pressure is building inside of it. it already seems like there is a lot of pressure because the fluid is blowing through all of those rubber washer things around the caps' dip stick.
this doesnt make much sense to me.
so excess crank case pressure would have nothing to do with this? i dont know how that would work but its a fear i have because i always drive my car pretty hard.
-fawcett

 

[HISSIN50]

so excess crank case pressure would have nothing to do with this? i dont know how that would work but its a fear i have because i always drive my car pretty hard.
-fawcett

Nope. Separate systems.

 

[fawcett]

now i feel much better about this.

 

[fawcett]

ttt

 

[MysteryMachine]

It might be a pain in the ass but try taking the pump out and putting it back in. Might sound like a stupid thing to do but if you don't want to spend the money on a new on its worth a shot. Like i said mine used to do that and now i don't think it does i need to check the fluid in it again but the steering feels great. Take it out and drain it out then put it back in maybe sonmethings in there and draining it will make it come out. I wonder if thats what happened to mine


and make sure its not over filled noticed JT mentioned that but didn't see where you said it was fine or not