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Folks, this has been an adventure. my apologies for the full context:
I have 6 9-5s in my stable and it seems each of them has had a stumper this past month: a charging issue, a starting issue, and a flooding issue that lead to a TWICE issue. I've dealt with all of those like a champ. I'm now down to the 2000 manual aero sedan that I drive. When I started driving the car, the power steering was iffy when parking. It got progressively worse until I decided to swap out the pump with one of the many used ones I have from previous parts cars. (I only keep things that I know were working when pulled). The car was instantly smooth in the steering - until I came back from a Christmas trip to see family. After sitting for maybe a week, the steering was super stiff. It never got better and the fluid was nasty with little sparkles in it. I flushed everything but assumed the worst - and it never got better. I tried one of my other pumps with no difference. The car has over 260K on it so I decided it was time for a rack replacement. I had two from 2000 so installed the best looking one. Not the worst job ever, but I'm not eager to do it again anytime soon.
The system worked great, but the pump whined quite a bit as I turned from lock to lock to bleed the system. After about 5 minutes of turning the wheel with my finger, the pump stopped whining and the steering got really stiff again. I finally bit the bullet on a new pump, installed it, and had the exact same experience. Did the pump really go bad in the first 5 minutes? (Again, easy steering with a whining pump, then pump got very quiet, seemingly moving some fluid, but no power assist). At one point, I started draining the fluid with the intent to swap pumps with a good running unit from one of my other cars. Ran out of time, put the fluid back in, and the pump just whines anytime there is the slightest load. Oddly, it felt better trying to turn the wheel but still very stiff when parking, etc.
I decided to go ahead and pull a pump from one of my other perfectly running cars, just because. Once back together, the car was perfect - easy steering, quiet pump, etc. I was so excited to finally drive my car without it being a serious forearm workout. Of course, as soon as I try things again, the steering is stiff. Initially, if I reved the car up a bit, I could feel the assist kicking in. within 10 minutes, even that didn't do anything anymore.
What did I do wrong? What am I missing? This is not my first time doing this on a 9-5 but I've never had this result. I am I left with being suspicious of the used rack that only a few months earlier worked like a champ on a running car?
My arms are so tired...
posted by 199.123.13...
, Mon, 13 Apr 2026 05:08:48
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