Ah, the joy of the 3.1 MPFI- PS Problems

[Brian P]

Yeah thanks for the good luck charm Shawn! LOL. Anyway, it goes like this:

 

Coming out of a deli parking lot (headed back to work) I pull out of the spot, go to drive, and a shit load of whitish smoke comes out from under the hood and is coming inside through the defroster...all gauges fine...shut the engine off, look under hood. Crap load of smoke coming from somewhere near steering rack. Restart the car and the P/S pump is whining like a motherfucker....check the resevoir- Bone dry. Went back into the deli, bought some ATF ( thats all that shit hole had) add it to the pump, restart, fluid starts pouring out. Said fuck it, filled up the resevoir, drove 2 miles to work. Later on took a look under hood, get this! The PS line I JUST REPLACED a year ago has a hole in the rubber part of it! How did it originate???? THe fucking thing was rubbing against the VSS sensor PLUG!!! ARGH! OK so I needed a way to get the car 10 miles home and I wasnt about to wing it again, so I attempted to slip a 3/8 section of heater hose over this area. Couldn't do it because of a sharp 80* bend on the metal pipe. So I went to an autoparts store and picked up a threaded plug to plug the hole that the pressure line went to....again, a bad idea. It worked for about 5 minutes until the pump overheated big time....so I had my girlfriend's father tow me home with his pick-up (what a great time to do this too, in the middle of a fucking nor-easter!) Now I cant replace the line (and possibly pump) in the parking lot here b/c that involves dropping the frame and shit, but I'm willing to fully remove the PS pump and run a smaller serpentine belt so I can get to school, then my friends house to work on the car tomorrow.....any idea if they sell belts "by the inch" so I can find one suitable? Ive bought belts before but never looked to see if they put the measurements on the package!

[Brian P]

OH, what makes a bad situation worse? Knowing this was all your fault cause when you installed it, you didnt check to make sure nothing was hitting it or rubbing it! Time for a car that's new enough that nothing goes wrong. Ive had so many miscellaneous pipes burst, like rubber coolant lines, heater cores...holy shit!

[ismellrealbad]

my Gp had a PS line bust while i was at the beach. i ended up driving the whole fucking 70 miles home on a bone dry ps pump. it didnt do any damage to it. in fact i was driving around town like that afterwards. my leak wasnt as bad as yours though. I'd put a bottle in and by ten miles later it would have drained out. so i baught about 6 bottles until i had the line replaced. Thats when somehow those fuckers tore the boot on the inside of my car!!!!!!! ARG THE SHIT WAS LOUD INSIDE AFTER THAT (exhaust leak loud)

[Brian P]

eh.....eek. I just dont want the pump to sieze up then take the Fing belt with it!

[skalor]

My PS pump spews fluid all over the place if it's hot outside and I make a turn idling. It's fucking weird and it really pissed me off until it got cooler outside and it stopped doing it. I would be making a turn and all of a sudden the pump would just start to whine like a little rich boy that didn't get everything he wanted for X-mas. It was really annoying and I was about to replace the pump, but it just up and stopped. My friend's '90 lumina(3.1) did that exact same thing as mine. If it does it again before spring it's getting a new PS pump because I like to hear the turbo and not the whine of the fucking PS pump

[Whiskey River]

.....any idea if they sell belts "by the inch" so I can find one suitable? Ive bought belts before but never looked to see if they put the measurements on the package!

 

They don't put any meaurements on the package that I'm aware of but I have went to parts houses and after measuring the the belt lenght and bought a belt based on length. I was bypassing my A/C compressor. I don't know if AutoZone or any of the chain places will do something like that but the mom and pop stores will usually do it. Just do the little string trick and I'm sure someone will hook you up.

[ismellrealbad]

if ur talking about the serp belt when i went to replace mine 2 of them came up for the 2.8. they had every belt measured in mm. mine was like 1015mm or somethin

[Brian P]

Just a note to anyone thinking of changing this line without getting so pissed off that you kick the shit out of the car: Take it to the shop. Have the car towed and have the shop do this, unless you have access to a fucking car lift. This is the last repair I do on my cutlass, next fucking hose that explodes underhood will get repaired my a mechanic then a for sale sign will be put up on it. What the fuck was GM thinking