hello just had a question and was wondering if anyone can help answer it. i have an 2005 monte carlo 3400 with just little over 130k. so whats wrong is some times when i go to take a turn the power steering seems to go out and lock up. i have no clue what it can be. any help would be appreciated. thank you

 

Hello and welcome to the Forum!

I am personally not a mechanic but things I would check out are the serpentine belt, power steering fluid level. this would be nothing to ignore for sure. Have you taken it into the shop? You should. Our Montes are prone to steering linkage problems too (had mine replaced on the 06 Monte for a recall)

 

I would check your power steering fluid level. If it's low, top it off. And if it's low, next question is why. I'd begin looking for signs of leaks.

 

Yeah the fluid is full and doesn't have a serpentine belt I believe it's naturally aspirated. Don't know if the car is just being weird but asked a couple people and most say it's rack and pinion

 

Your car has a serpentine belt, that is the single belt connecting to all the pulleys (regardless of being naturally aspirated or not). If you had a SuperCharged 3800, it has a second belt for supercharger. If you did not have a serpentine belt, you would have a series of separate belts from the crank to 1-2 different other pulleys (V-belts were common for that).

The symptom you are describing I typically have seen as a result of air getting in the line or needing to be bled out. The next question is, was there recently any service done to the power steering system. If so, it's possible there is a pocket of air that has yet to "burp" itself and it should.

If not, start checking the following:
- Leaks (have one person in the car turning the wheel extreme left to extreme right a couple of times and watch on the ground for signs of leaks).
- Watch the belt as the car idles and see if it "bounces" a lot (like there is slack in it). If so, either the belt is wearing and needs replaced OR the tensioner is getting weak and not holding the belt to the proper amount of tension. Theory here is the belt does not have enough tension on it to keep the power steering pump moving to keep up with the increased load from turning.
- When the power steering goes out, do you hear a "groan" like sound? If so, this rules out other suspension parts. Low fluid and air pockets can cause this "groan" noise.

I would suspect a failing power steering pump before a failing steering rack. Just my gut feeling.

Hope this helps.

 

Have the same issue in the tv's intrigue, still can't figure it out, going on 3years and almost 60k and no change, hop you can resolve it my best guess is it is time for a new ps pump