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2G Upgraded power steering lines and now runs hot

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jpmxrider489

10+ Year Contributor
2,410
146
Apr 4, 2010
pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
I recently upgraded all my lines based on the thread linked below. I have both steering fittings on the rack that are -6. They route by the frame rail. I have the high pressure one going to the pump. Then the other one is going to the factory cooling loop and to the bottom port of the reservoir that is also -6. Then I have the top port of the reservoir going to the pump. It is also -6. I know the factory upper port is roughly -10 but I seen many reports of -6 working. Better yet I havnt seen any data saying that -6 wont work. My fluid is extremly hot. I cant even open the cap it is so hot. This is all at idle and turning in my driveway. The fluid is brand new valvoline atf. What would cause this issue and how to fix it? Could it be the size of the line that is the issue? Maybe I should switch the ports on the reservoir?
 
To me it sounds like you have the reservoir ports backwards, but I don't have the system in front of me. I'd think the bottom port for the res. would go to the pump, and the top port would come from the cooling loop.

Also, no link to check out the procedure you followed?
 
Double check your line routing. Also now you have gone AN lines i would go to a slightly bigger cooler also as the tube is not exactly ideal for cooling. Nothing huge so a small one will be fine. When i was going to do this i had the small true long unit
 
To me it sounds like you have the reservoir ports backwards, but I don't have the system in front of me. I'd think the bottom port for the res. would go to the pump, and the top port would come from the cooling loop.

Also, no link to check out the procedure you followed?
Here is the link. I forgot to put it. You have the same thoughts as me. But the factory reservoir has the top port, which is the larger one, going to the pump. And the bottom port going to the cooler. I attached a diagram of the factory routing. And as you can see the top goes to the pump.

https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/steering-an-lines.397521/

Double check your line routing. Also now you have gone AN lines i would go to a slightly bigger cooler also as the tube is not exactly ideal for cooling. Nothing huge so a small one will be fine. When i was going to do this i had the small true long unit

I double checked the routing and it all seems to be correct. My thoughts on the hot power steering fluid. Since the factory lines went up over the strut tower and had bends, that made them long. To me that was unnecesarry. So I simplified my setup. I retained the factory cooling loop. But my top port and bottom port are -6. The top port from the factory is 5/8 which is -10. I have read many posts about people using -6 for the whole system without issues. My thoughts are, since I shortened the lines, plus the resriction of the top port can cause this issue? I upgrade the line to a larger size from the pump to the reservoir. But the factory system was all -6, so I dont see why I am having this issue. I have a extra cooler I can try and use.

I am open to thougths and things to try. I havnt seen any data saying that -6 is to small. Matter of fact, I read people delete the cooling loop all together but they dont autocross. I just use valvoline atf4. Maybe there is something better but I dont want to get into a fluid battle here LOL. I also think its weird that most aftermarket reservoirs have the big port on the bottom like mine does, but our oem one is opposite, why is that?
 
Here you can see the oem and aftermarket cooler I'm using. Even inside the pump is funnels to a smaller size. Here is the 2g diagram I found.
 

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At this point, increasing return line size and adding a more effective cooler would be my next moves.

The factory ports are so close it's negligible in my mind. I would think the biggest, lowest-restriction pump feed, combined with return line size increase and a better cooler should be the ticket.
 
The 10AN size is not alot of length as it reduces to go over the fender tower anyway so 6AN should be just fine and i think thats what i was going to use also myself. Pressure does create heat so it is a concern but have you check your lines are not kinked anywhere causing a restriction along the way?

So from my memory the fluid goes res - pump - steering rack - cooler - res then cycles again.

I cannot think of anything else currently
 
The 10AN size is not alot of length as it reduces to go over the fender tower anyway so 6AN should be just fine and i think thats what i was going to use also myself. Pressure does create heat so it is a concern but have you check your lines are not kinked anywhere causing a restriction along the way?

So from my memory the fluid goes res - pump - steering rack - cooler - res then cycles again.

I cannot think of anything else currently

The 10an size just goes from the pump to the res. The rest of the system is-6 from the factory. I am removing the cooling loop and adding a bm cooler as we speak. Hopefully I can report good news tomorow.
 
So I put in a cooler in place of the loop. From the rack to cooler is -6 and from the cooler to res is -8. Then from the res to the pump is also -8. I also bled the pump alone prior to the cooler install and it did not fix the hot fluid thing. I did however find some larger rubber chunks in my one hose. Cleared that and bled again hoping the boiling would stop but it didn't. I bled the pump using a funnel method I read about in another thread.

After putting the cooler in and bleeding again. It appears that the fluid is not running as hot. Even took the car for a 20 minute trip. Still appears to be cooler than before. It is now really hard to turn the wheel at low rpm like in my driveway. I also moved my lower port on the res to the pump since its the larger bung. The top bung is now going to the cooler. My theory to this, if I have the suction from the pump on the bottom of the res, then it would be impossible to get air in the system. Does the oem res have anything to do with the bleeding? Like the filter/baffle? When I bleed it now with the new res, I dont really hear air like I would before. When the power steering kicks in, it feels interment ant.
 
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