hi i had a quick question. Recently i went on a road trip, and on that trip i drove at about 100 for a few minutes, please dont bash me for speeding, and when i stoppped to eat somewhere i smelled tranny fluid. I thought that was bad, so i was worried, upon pulling into a parking lot, it seemed like my power steering wasn't functioning properly, ie excessive effort to turn. This led me to well the smell is from the ps pump. Anyone else experience this, or can validate it? Could driving at that speed/RPMs spin the ps pump too fast?? thanks!

 

I don't believe your speed impacts your power steering or 'makes the PS pump "spin" faster' as you stated. To the best of my knowledge, the two should not be related. If your low on PS fluid, you've probably got a leak somewhere. If not I doubt your PS pump is your problem.

 

yeah i didnt think so on the pump spinning too fast, but my fluid level is fine. It just is strange to me. . .

 

Yea, RPM's should definately have no affect on power steering. If you do have a leak, it's possible it could be dripping down on your exhaust manifold and burning. Other than that you really shouldn't smell power steering fluid. (Hell if I don't guess I really even know what PS fluid smells like.) Perhaps your original thought of it being transmission fluid could be the case?

 

How long were you driving at 100 mph?

Let's think about this for a minute. What's the rpm of the engine at 100 mph? What's the rpm when you floor it from a stop?

Seems to me, if the engine and its components can handle the revs of an engine being floored, it can handle a limited 100 mph run, but for how long?

I wonder how long a few minutes really was?

Running at 100 mph can't be much worse than flooring it every chance you get. Moving weight from a stop is a strain. Keeping that weight moving isn't, until you take drag into account. That's a lot of surface area that's being moved, so the engine, tranny, and the rest of the drive train are under above normal stress.

Have you pulled your tranny dipstick? Does it look and smell normal? Does the tranny shift normally? If so, I beleive you need to look at your power steering system. Look for leaks. The harder steering effort seems to point to a PS problem. Was it caused by the 100 mph run? I doubt it.

BTW, the truck can handle 100 mph. Chances are, your tires can't. If you have the stock tires, you are lucky. Do you have speed rated tires on your truck? If not...

 

no literally it was like 2 minutes or something, nothing crazy, and i know it was a safety issue, but safety is an issue no matter how fast you drive. No leaks in the ps system, tranny fluid, looks/smells fine. crazy huh?

 

I've had this happen to my 1979 F150 before. I pull off the expressway & sometimes for a mile or so vehicle would steer like power steering is not working correctly. Then after a mile or so, vehicle would steer fine.

I have attributed this problem to one of two things. Relief valve in P/S pump was slightly sticking or ambient air being induced into the system (possibly around a swedge fitting on a hose or a hose clamp on the return line to the pump).

If this problem is persistant; next time it does it--pull over & leave the engine run. Take cap off of P/S fill and examine to see if there are champaign like bubbles in the resevior. If bubbles are present--you have air in the system!

I have previous vocational experience on P/S systems on big truck & light trucks.

 

My theory on this is that if you watch your ps reservoir at idle the fluid is moving around quite a bit. Now imagine at a 100mph your ps pump IS spinning faster and for more than 2 minutes because it takes time to get to 100. Now imagine how much that fluid is jumping around and getting real hot not all of these trucks have ps coolers.

So my thought is that the fluid got real hot and full of air kind of like an overfilled tranny would. So the ps pump wastrying to push foam through the pressure lines instead of fluid.

I would have your ps system flushed ASAP.

PS fluid is very similar to ATF so that is why you might have thought you smelled tranny fluid.

just my .02