Merc 190 / 190E Power Steering Whine (but only at one end of the lock / rack!)

[rjsdavis]

Hi there

I have a 1989 190E - have had it for a while, and has always been pretty reliable.

I had garaged, and off the road for about 6 months (regularly turned over & occasioanlly driven), but it was largely unused. It is now coming back into regular use, and I have a small power steering issue.

The steering works and feels fine (ish). Whenever the lock is taken to the full left (nearside), it travels right to the end of its travel, hisses normally when its there, and there are no problems. The steering feels smooth and quiet in transition from lock to lock.

However, when it travels fully to the right (offside), when it gets to the end of the travel (the last 1/4 of the turn before full lock) - it makes a loud growly noise, and the steering wheel shakes. It is clearly a problem, as a) it never used to do this, and b) it only does it at one end of the lock.

When I pull the car out of the garage, I am finding some small leakage from somewhere (just a few drips). It appears to be a completely clear fluid, and appears to have no smell (it appears for all intents and purposes to just be water), but I don't think that this is connected to the problem. The fluid appears from directly below the middle of the engine compartment.

I have checked the power steering fluid reservoir, and it is completely full - I can't find any obvious leaks anywhere, although that does not mean that there isn't one of course.

Can anyone assist? - I am a reasonably competent mechanic, and can attempt the majority of home DIY car tasks (short of taking engines out etc!), and always rely on the trusty Haynes manual to get me out of bother - but can't find a solution to this one!

I don't mind taking it to the garage if I really have to, but would much prefer to fix it myself if this is do-able. Any help at all would be very much appreciated - thanks in advance for anyone that can shed some light on the problem - any questions that will help with diagnosis - please email me.

Richard Davis
dr518@gre.ac.uk

 

[ALAN@ECUCLINIC]

please call me i used to work for a power steering company for some time and im sure i can help 020 8761 7482

 

[rjsdavis]

Thanks for the offer

I'm not home until Friday - so will give you a call then. Thanks for the offer.

Richard

 

[ALAN@ECUCLINIC]

ha! typical, i`m off friday till tuesday !!!!
if need be i can pm you my mobile number

 

[rjsdavis]

Always the way. If you don't want to post the moby on here - then feel free to email me direct if you want to;

richard.davis@freeuk.com

Thanks for your help.

Richard

 

[rjsdavis]

Friday - 2/6/06

Alan

Thanks for your kind offer. I'm sure you'd forgotten all about me, but I hadn't had time to spend trying to sort this problem out until now!

Are you likely to be around on Friday at all - I shall be at home and trying to work out what's wrong with it all day.

Thanks alot

Richard

 

[ALAN@ECUCLINIC]

let me give you my mobile number....doh! its in my sig call me anytime sir.

 

[rjsdavis]

White smoke from my 190E at 90mph!

To Alan (or anyone else who looks at this)!

I've just had the Merc MOT'd, and it flew through without any problems at all. I asked the tester about the power steering whine, and he said that it was nothing to be unduly concerned about, and that it was nothing more than the pump putting more stress on one end of the box than the other - it was also apparently linked to the fact that as the lock went to the offside end of the lock, it moves some of the pipes in the engine bay slightly.

Anyway - new problem!

I was driving home along a fast stretch of road, and was happily cruising along at around 80 mph. At one point, I pushed her upto 95 mph, just to give her a short burst, and there was a large plume of white smoke emitted from the rear of my car. I could see it quite clearly in my rear view mirror, and it definitely came from my car......

I immediately backed off the gas, and pulled into the inside lane, not knowing what had just happened... eased back down to 70, and just cruised along at that speed all the way home without further incident.

What concerns me was what happened? The smoke lasted for about 3 seconds, and disappeared the moment I eased off the gas. The smoke was white, and I have checked the oil level as soon as I got home.

On the dash, the oil pressure was at 3 - where it always is, and the temperature guage was at about 80 degrees. I have faith that it was working properly, as when I was stuck in stationary traffic - it was regularly creeping upto 100, and back down again as we gathered speed to cool down again. The guages appear to indicate that all is well, and that there is no loss of oil or coolant. Any ideas? I am concerned now that this is some sort of problem waiting to happen at some point in the future!

Any help - would surely be appreciated.

Richard

 

[Blobcat]

White smoke is either a new Pope or a water leak. As the Pontiff is still fairly new in the job I'm guessing you have a water leak somewhere, possibly headgasket.

 

[rjsdavis]

Dear Blobcat

Thanks for the reply - however, you will have to excuse my technical naivety. Apart from checking the coolant level in the expansion tank (I think that's right!), how can I check for a leak itself?

If it is the head gasket, what causes the white smoke, is the leaked water being vapourised by the temperature of the block? Or is it actually escaping through the gasket as steam?

If it's not the head gasket, is there anywhere else I can be checking for leaks (apart from the rad itself which I already guessed)...

Is there anyway of repairing it relatively cheaply (I am a poor student), or is only the case of you just have to get a new one, and if I have to get a new one, what would you consider to be a reasonable (ish) charge for the part and fitting?

What I am trying to work out is - if it is a water leak - I presume that this is going to happen again and again? Is it the pressure of the extra speed that I demanded of her that caused this temporary leak - what I don't understand is why it only happened at the high speed - why doesn't the water leak out all of the time, surely a hole is a hole?

I am most grateful for your help in assisting me to understand this.

Richard

 

[Blobcat]

Is it steam or smoke?
If steam it could be a distorted cylinder head, cracked engine block or head gasket.
If smoke it could be contaminated fuel, valve leakage or a broken piston ring.
Non of the above are good :sad:
A compression test will show up most of the above problems. Are you sure you are not losing any water?
Have a look under the oil filler cap, if there is an 'Mayonaise' type substance then water is in the oil. Pls also check the dipstick and radiator reservoir for evidence of cross contamination.

 

[rjsdavis]

Thanks alot for the reply. Much appreciated.

I've noticed on my garage floor, that there is a slight coolant leak. Literally a few drops when the engine is idling.... the coolant level is down, but is now topped up - so it would appear to be a coolant leak from somewhere.

I've searching around, and found rave reviews for Kalimex's K-seal product - which you just add to the coolant expansion tank - it wanders around the system and plugs any breach that it finds - have you had any experience of using this stuff at all?

I know that Holts do a redweld product, but a lot of people reckon its crap and not worth the effort. I hate to do things "on the cheap", but if it is a head gasket problem, I can't afford the £500 quid or so charge to fix it!

Richard

 

[ALAN@ECUCLINIC]

sorry mr davis, only just read of your plight,t.b.h i think you are in better hands than mine on this one but you have my number should you need it
alan

 

[KimBrack]

Richard

Just read the response you got from the chap who did your MOT test regarding the power steering query.

I have a 1990 190E and it does exactly what you described on a full right hand lock. No noise or juddering on the left hand lock but on the right hand lock there is a quite pronounced juddering that I can feel tugging at the steering wheel. Initially thought it might be the tyre catching on the mud guard but ruled that out as it occurs when the car is stationary. Put the car over a pit and could still see nothing obvious.

A great relief to read your explanation. Have you had any further suggestions or explanations?

Regards, Kim

 

[wireman]

Do beware of holding the steering hard against the stops on any power steering equiped vehicle, The pressure and loads on the steering arms and track rods will be at its maximum and much more than what is required, this can bend them (and suspension parts) if any extra forces from manuvering the car (say nudging the tyre against a kerb whilst footpath parking or the like) get applied inadvertently. Regularly holding this sort of load will also shorten your belt life.

If you can hear belt squeal at the end of travel just let a tiny bit of lock off.

 

[phil_2413]

As a point of interest I am sure my old 1993 124 had a 'stop' at the end of the steering rack so you couldn't force the steering wheel against the pump, shame they didn't put this feature on the 190 - in fact I am surprised all cars don't have it.