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Blazer oil change and power steering problem.

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Sledgstone

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Well, I did the oil change for the Blazer for the first time last Sunday (09-20-2009). I had to buy an oil filter wrench because my grip wrench would not budge that f*cking oil filter no matter how hard I tried. What a pain in my ass that was. Everything went well, but then on monday I noticed a weird humming noise and a stiffness to the steering wheel. Afraid I f*cked something up, I checked all my fluids. But no, it wasn't the oil. My power steering fluid was out. WTF. So I hit the gas station down the road from work, put some power steering fluid in and got home with no problem. I had to to do this a couple of times. I ended up getting some power steering stop leak at NAPA. It seemed to have stopped the leak thursday night. But! I started driving to work friday and the steering gave out completely. I tried putting my fluid in, but the car vomited it all over the road.

As of today, I removed the air filter cabin and the front left headlight. It seems that the power steering fluid is leaking from a metal joint that connects to the ps cooler. I'm trying to put a hose over top of the broken section of pipe and clamp it down to fix the leak. I should be finished with it tomorrow, rain permitting. If it doesn't work, I might have to cut that section of pipe off and replace it with a high pressure hose... I'm just hoping that that is the only place it is leaking from. And I have to say this... what a horrible f*cking design flaw. With the way the headlight is positioned, the excess rain water or salty water during the winter that hits in that crack between the headlight and the hood would drip down the back of the headlight and rust the shit out of this metal joint. Why in the hell would someone design something to be rusted out like that? Its like it was made to break.

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I'm shocked. It appears as though my first attempt at fixing the leak has actually fixed the leak. I might have a picture of the actual leaking joint, but I did not get a picture of the patch work. I was lucky to get it done in the time I had when the rain stopped. Of course the service engine soon light is on now. I have a feeling its the MAF sensor. I either put it back on in reverse or I need to clean it. gah. Thats not difficult at all tho.

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An update. To bleed air out of the power steering system you have to turn the wheel back and forth without hitting the absolute left and right stops. Thats what I was doing the day I got it to work. After I patched it, I put fluid in, but it overflowed because of the air in the system. It was a real bitch to purge the air out initially because it had no power steering at all after my patch job. I had to keep putting the truck in drive, then reverse, and pull like hell on the steering wheel back and forth in small increments while moving the car forward and reverse in my driveway until the PS finally purged the air and then kicked on. While I was doing that the service engine soon light was on and after that is when I posted the last reply.

The next day, I turned the car back on and everything seems to be working good. The service engine soon light went off too. I'm guessing it was on because of the pressure issues in the power steering system. So I let the car sit overnight to see if more air in the PS system would rise to the surface, which it did. I added slightly more fluid and the PS system isn't making anymore noise and the service engine soon light didn't come on. So then I drove it the next city over, did some shopping and errands and I didn't see any noticeable problems or new leaks. The only thing I haven't done yet is take in on the highway. Other than that I'm feeling more confident that the problem is fixed now. *knocks on wood*

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