Steering Trouble

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Tube Audio - 01 Feb 2008 07:13 GMT

My sister has a 1987 Camry

She called me today and told me she was driving and her steering failed.
She said the wheel was really hard to turn or maybe even locked?

She applied the brakes and came to a stop and the steering started to work
again. This has happened two times in the last week.

I haven't looked at the car yet, I will see it this weekend.

So a little bit of history.

1) About 4 years ago her car was stolen. They jammed the ignition lock.
She got the car back. The key starts the car fine, almost any key starts
the car since the ignition cylinder lock is broken. Once the car is started
the key can be pulled out without turning the key back to the off position.
Also once or twice the starter engaged while the car was running. All
pointing to a broken ignition cylinder lock. I am just wondering if the
steering column lock suffered damage when the ignition lock was broken when
the car was stolen.

2) About a year ago my sister poured, topped off her power steering fluid
with motor oil. I caught it within a week or so. I removed all the fluid
in the power steering reservoir with a turkey baster, refilled the reservoir
and started the car, turned the steering wheel side to side a few times with
the car running and then I removed the fluid again with the baster. I
repeated this about 10x or so until I used up a gallon of ATF.

So I am thinking I should have removed the hose drained the system and ran
the car for a few seconds with the hose disconnected. The filled it up with
fresh ATF and flushed it again. This would have been better then what I
did.

So now wondering what is going on with her steering. At first I thought the
steering column is locking do to the damage from the theft. However that
was 4 years ago and I would think it would have showed up before now. So
now am thinking power steering failure due to the motor oil? Pump? Rack?

Any ideas?

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Jeff - 01 Feb 2008 12:28 GMT

> My sister has a 1987 Camry
>
[quoted text clipped - 35 lines]
>
> Any ideas?

Pump, Rack, steering column, ignition lock. Unlikely to be motor oil.

Also, she should not be driving this until it's fixed. If she continues
to drive this, she may kill herself or someone else.

Jeff

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Ph@Boy - 01 Feb 2008 14:38 GMT

> My sister has a 1987 Camry
>
[quoted text clipped - 35 lines]
>
> Any ideas?

Could be the power rack or the pump, but like Jeff mentioned, if it is
in fact locking, she should not drive it until it's repaired. You will
probably have to drive it yourself to determine that.

It sounds like you did all you can do when she contaminated the system.
Even if you took of the hoses it's really hard to get it all out of the
power rack, and you don't want to run the pump dry.

It's a twenty one year old car and perhaps just due to normal usage one
or more components has either failed or just worn out to a point where
it's intermittent. I hope it's something a simple as a belt or an
adjustment for you.

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Ray O - 01 Feb 2008 15:11 GMT

> My sister has a 1987 Camry
>
[quoted text clipped - 36 lines]
>
> Any ideas?

1) It is possible that the steering column lock engaged. If this was the
case, jiggling the key in the ignition should have released the steering
wheel.

2) While is it possible that the contaminated PS fluid caused a problem, I
doubt it. A more likely problem would have been noise from the PS pump or
leaks somewhere.

3) Another possibility is that a u-joint on the steering column has become
corroded and is binding. When this happens, people describe the movement of
the steering wheel as "notchy" or "jerky" or suddenly difficult to turn. I
don't remember if the 87 Camry has 1 or 2 joints. There is probably 1 where
the steering column comes out of the firewall and there may be another where
the column meets the steering rack. Take a look - if it is very rusty, it
should be replaced. I think the column has to be replaced as an assembly
from the firewall to the rack

There could be a problem with the pump, rack, or other linkages, but I would
check the lock and u-joints first.

Signature

Ray O
(correct punctuation to reply)

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Mike hunt - 01 Feb 2008 17:05 GMT

It happened TWICE? Who in their right mind would continue to drive a
vehicle, in which the steering failed, without having the fault corrected?

> My sister has a 1987 Camry
>
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> She applied the brakes and came to a stop and the steering started to work
> again. This has happened two times in the last week.

Reply to this Message

Hachiroku - 01 Feb 2008 23:21 GMT

> 1) About 4 years ago her car was stolen. They jammed the ignition lock.
> She got the car back. The key starts the car fine, almost any key starts
> the car since the ignition cylinder lock is broken. Once the car is
> started the key can be pulled out without turning the key back to the off
> position.

I have two cars that do this, but the steering doesn't lock up on me.

What you might try is to sit with the car OFF, and jiggle the wheel and
see if it locks when it shouldn't. Better yet, lift the front wheels (or
take it to a shop with a lift), start the car and run the wheel from lock
to lock.

If it is the lock mecahism catching when it shouldn't, replace the locks.
A complete set for my '85 Corolla was $125.

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