steering hiss gone

[mark]

I spent the weekend putting on a new power steering hose between the reservoir and the pump. lo and behold, when i got the car back together, the everpresent hiss is gone. don't know why. changing out the hoses meant draining most of the fluid from the system. perhaps air worked its way into the lines over time on our cars, or maybe Lotus upgraded the hoses somehow. or maybe the old fluid had degenerated. anyways its a nice quiet change. btw, this is one of the worst jobs to do on the car that i've come across. Aside from the mess of pulling off lines still full of fluid, the "hose" is really a semi-rigid pipe that sneaks between most of the stuff in the engine compartment and of course you have to loosen or remove alot of it to get the pipe installed. then there is the matter of a retaining bolt holding the hose onto the firewall with maybe 2 inches of clearance to the engine. and it is only accessible flat on your back under the car reaching through a gap between the axle, steering rack and frame. the kicker is that the hose clamp at the steering pump can only be accessed through the back of the right side headlamp pod. Lotus actually suggest removing the front clamshell to change the pump! don't we have fun working on these cars

[Dave M]

Lotus actually suggest removing the front clamshell to change the pump! don't we have fun working on these cars

I can believe that! Removal of the pump was one of the worst things about pulling the engine. I also leaked fluid all over the carpet under my car. Ack.

Did you have any issue when putting things back together and refilling the system? Seems the manual recommended filling the fluid reservoir then turning the wheel back and forth to get the air out. I'll be to that stage rather soon...

[Doug]

glad you had fun, Mark

and you get to smell the old gnarly fluid stench on yer hands for a day or two afterwards

differential gear fluid has the worst stench

let us know if the snakes stay away or return with use

[mark]

Did you have any issue when putting things back together and refilling the system? Seems the manual recommended filling the fluid reservoir then turning the wheel back and forth to get the air out. I'll be to that stage rather soon...[/quote]

My plan was to bleed out air where all the lines run into the steering rack. However I came to my senses when I got under the car and tried to figure out how to get a wrench even close to the lines on the left side of the rack. I could not see a way to loosen those lines without major work to remove suspension and other stuff blocking access. So I did just as you suggest - fill the reservoir, let the pump run, turn the wheel a couple times to push air through the lines and let it bubble back up through the reservoir I had to refill the reservoir several times.

[Paul.P]

As a matter of interest, nephew being a mechanic, told me, the way they bleed power steering in the trade is to jack front end up & turn steering fully one way, then fully the other, & thats it !