after about an hour of driving my steering gets stiff as if i have no fluid but its full...
after i park it and let it sit the steering is fine, so it seems to only be when it gets warm.....could it just be low on fluid????
stupid question..yes..but im lost on this!

 

try flushing your fluid. If that doesn't work it is probbably your gear.

 

thanks...is their a proper way of flushing my steering system? i havent really checked into it yet...i searched some and only found how to take out the power steering which i dont want. and what gear are you taling about???
sorry for the noob questions...lol

 

are you getting a warning beep?


it sounds like the power steering computer to me....

Try this:

1) locate the P/S cpu under the steerin column(uber simple)
2) drive until the P/S cuts out
3) Unplug the P/S CPU
4) Plug it back in and see if you get power for a bit...

I had a *relatively* similar problem a while back

Also - does your speedo still work? if the P/S cpu doesn't get a speed signal it will muff up like that......

OH wait, is this an S4 or S5?

 

sorry...
s4...no beep or anything...its after the motor starts getting warm then it feels like i lose all my fluid....i can let the car shut off for 20 minutes..hop back in then its fine for another 20 minutes then screws up again...
speedo and tach all still work fine..

 

sounds like a cold solder joint in the power steering computer to me as well.

And remember only the power steering computers built before 06/87 have the beep diagnostics

 

it must be icemark...
damn.. seems like these cold solder joints are just coming out of know where for me...

 

have you found the culprit joints yet icemark???

 

yeah, The relay fails and the solder joints where the pins meet the circuit board are the most common fail points

 

while on that subject, what different warning beeps are there? theres the redline, coolant, open door. lately every once in a while i will be idling and for no reason i can see there will be a on off beep, a consistant long beep(less than a second but longer than door beep) then same length pause repeating over and over. sometimes it stops, sometimes i click the key off then on to get rid of it. what does the overheated exhaust warning sound like if there is a sound (i have an s4)

 

That is covered in the FAQ for FC sticky thread... there you would have found there are fthe following beeps/warnings:

Buzzer for low oil
Buzzer for low coolant
Buzzer for exceeding redline

Beep for power steering (not found on later models)

Beep for open door with key in the ignition
Beep for open door and lights on

Beeps for convertible top operation

From your description you have bubbles in the coolant

 

ok....
i got a new power steering unit (well...its used but) im having the same problem......
i drive for a while and i lose my power steering...i must have gotten one that was made prior to 06/86 because now it beeps....
is it just low on fluid????

 

its possible that the other unit simply has the same problem.

The units are VERY sensitive in their old age, for example:

I changed the steering column (wouldn't lock the steering) on my 86 beater and afterwards had a beeping/P-steering cutting out on me. Turns out that jarring around during the removal of the old column must've broke a solder joint in the unit. Swapped it out with a KNOWN good one and had no problems since.

Now, don't think that I wailed the thing with a hammer or something drastic, Im talking that I only jerked on the column enough to remove it from the rack, I never wailed on the P/S computer or anything, it just got shaken around a bit. And that was enough to send it to the garbage can....

 

anyone try to solder these???
is it easy to solder????
this is horrible....
mine doesnt lock...
man...dont tell me this...mine doesnt either!!!lol
i have to have everything working or it bugs the hell outta me...lol

 

Icemark sells re-manned units



The steering *should* lock when the key is pulled out and the wheel is turned.....sometimes you have to crank it around a bit, like a turn and a half, but it SHOULD lock

 

mine locks after about a half turn......

i'll usually have a power steering failure on heavy decel. like if i rev out one gear, usually 1st or 2nd, and then hard on the brakes and try to turn into a parking lot or whatever, the steering is really really stiff. at no other time does it give me any issues.

 

anyone ever solder these??? im lookin for pictures on what could be the culprit...
maybe ill recheck the fluid level to be sure since the one i have now is beeping which would indicate low fluid...
the motor should be runnin when i check it shouldnt it???
i cant believe i dont know this but i dont...lol

 

Yes, I have rebuilt ones available on my webstore.

What generally fails, is where the board meets the plug and then the relay. Sometimes you will also see a couple of the transisters fail.

fstrnyou besides having a radically oversized signature (that needs to be resized before it is deleted) has one of the stepper motor traces failing. About the begining of the 88 model year Mazda stopped putting the Diagnostic beeper in the power steering CPU, so he is probably not getting any warning about the failure. It is common to have the power steering computer "miss" a step with the bad joint and only notice the problem when slowing down and turning at the same time.

 

sig temporarily fixed.

do i have to replace the stepper motor? resolder something? and is something like that found in the FSM so i can locate it?

 

Thanks!

And if you want to try and do it yourself, remove all the solder from the joints where the plug attaches to the circuit board in the power steering computer.

then flow new solder in.

If it just a bad joint that should fix it.

If it is something else like a blown transister then it won't be fixed

 

oh ok, you started talking about stepper motors and i thought this would be difficult. i can solder, that's no big deal. thanks Icemark

 

id really like to try this but i fried my wiper curcuit board...
i guess it helps if i dont use such a big solder gun...