I'm having some trouble with this car. I recently got it for free from my father in law and was hoping to fix it for my wife. The car wouldn't start so I tore it apart to find that that timing belt was broke on it.

After replacing the timing belt (to make sure the car was even worth fixing hoping the valves were not bent or pistons gashed) The car started up.

So I took it back apart and replaced the water pump and the lower balancer belt and the crank shaft pully. I also replaced the lower radiator hose cause it had a leak in it. The valve cover was taken off and one of the head bolts were replaced as well as the top nut and a new valve cover gasket set. I put new spark plugs as well.

I finally started it up yesterday and it came right on with no hassle so I drove it around the block and the check engine light came on. I did the diag and it was a 12 a 14 (ERG and IAC) I found the problem with the ERG (it wasn't plugged in lol) so I cleared the error and drove around the block. That took care of the check engine light.

The car idles fine until you put it in Gear then it seems to idle rough and everything shakes pretty well (enough to annoy you) after driving on the highway the car seemed to run fine until about 2 1/2 miles later at the stop light the car felt like it was gonna die..... and got damn near close to dieing out. It didn't though and I made it home (puttering and praying of coarse). Once back at home I popped the hood and noticed the power steering fluid was boiling out (that is what I must have smelled on the highway. The temp gage on the dash read directly in the center. I also noticed that the fans are not turning on at all.

Any Ideas what is going on here? Any help would be much much much much much appreciated!!

Thanks!

 

power steering fluid boiled out? never seen that before. Change the power steering fluid, and your idle problem is probably a dirty\plugged IAC or EGR port. In the FAQ theres guides for cleaning the throttle body EGR and fast idle thermal valve, and I would do that. See, you may have found your EGR issue but you never did anything about that IAC code. I would start working on that. Shoot the engine with a laser temp gun and see how hot it gets too and post that info

 

After clearing the ECM the IAC code never came back on. I'll try cleaning the ERG and IAC in the morning and see what happens. I'm thinking maybe there was just some air in the Power steering it was coming out like foam, gonna see if there is a possible bleeding valve for that and maybe that will help.

Thanks for your response I'll follow up tomorrow.

 

that could be just air, take the cap off and run the wheel back and forth with the engine on then look at the fluid

 

Did your F&L mention any Power Steering issues b4 gifting it to his daughter?
Is there an associated whinning noise from the Power Steering?
The system self-purges via the fluid reservoir, there is no bleed valve for that system.

If you didn't open the P/S system to do work, the pump may be cavitating. This can be caused by one of three things.
1) System went dry (low on fluid)
2) Air being sucked into the system or
3) A restriction on the suction side of the power steering pump.

P

 

Make sure the ps belt isn't too tight. It may cause an air leak at the shaft seal when the pump is worn.As for the idle issue, make sure you have bled all air out of the cooling system. This would also cause issues with the fans not coming on. Did you replace the t-stat when you did the water pump?

 

yeah new gaskets and t stat. the belt it tight to spec and yes I bled out the water system with the bleeder valve.

 

I ordered a new gasket for the idle air control, I took it off of there and there was no gasket on the thing so it's coming today. I also cleaned out the EGR and the IAC to see if that helps. More when I get it all back together

 

Damn it's been a long draw gentlemen. So far I have removed the EGR and IAC for cleaning. I cleaned them up real good with some carb cleaner and a ton of paper towels. I stuffed the middle of the ERG when cleaning as not to get any onto the flow regulator.

I sprayed out the IAC controller and put on a new gasket as well.

The engine actually runs great now, I still have an oil leak somewhere on either the right or left side. Cleaning out the IAC and EGR also go rid of the intermitten engine light problem.

I haven't been able to trace the oil leak back so I just recently got under there with some brushes and engine cleaner to clean out all the previous oil cake (there was a ton of it everywhere). I got it all clean now so I am gonna try to chase it back.

For the power steering pump, I clean the heck out of the reservoir and the filter inside there with kerosene. That did not fix the bubbling problem. This is the problem I am trying to figure out now. I suspect one of the main seals for the ps mech itself. It is possible that is where my oil leak is as well. I have heard stories of replacing the power steering pump seals so I got a set of them as well.

I also hooked up a vacuum gage to the free port on Intake and from what the gage is reading the engine is running like a champ. For now I have the power steering unhooked while I address the issue.

So when I get the time I'll pull the covers back off and see what side my leak is on as soon as I can trace it back.