A couple of weeks ago as I was bopping down a forest road at a healthy clip to get to a distant trailhead, I had to slow down and make a 90 degree turn unto another road. The steering suddenly felt quite heavy, not at all as its usual light self. Hmm.
I pulled over to raise the hood, thinking that probably the power steering pump belt—which is its own little thing and not the serpentine belt—snapped. Nope; there it was, and there was plenty of fluid in the pump. The pump must have died. Oh well, not really a problem, and I was thankful it wasn’t anything more serious as I was alone, way out of cell coverage, and technically in violation of a closure in the area due to a forest fire.
That resulted in getting a front row seat in watching jets drop fire retardant.
My destination was Cowhorn Mountain, a relatively unknown volcanic peak in the central Cascades that I had never climbed before, since its upper portion has a steep scree section and then the final peak requires scrambling (non-technical climbing). Since Stephanie wasn’t coming, this was my chance to finally cross it off my list.
Getting to the top did require climbing up some steep slabs, using cracks for hand and footholds. The summit was tiny; just enough room for maybe three or four. But the exposure (several thousand feet drop) and views were superb, except the part about the forest fires. I had a perfect view of the Windigo Pass fire directly to the south, and sat on the summit eating my lunch and watching two jets make repeated drops of fire retardant.
It was fascinating to see the how they did this. There was a small spotter/pilot plane that kept circling. When one of the jets appeared, the spotter plane led it on a complete circle over the fire area, descending all the time. When the pilot plane was where it wanted the jet to dump its load, it let out a little white smoke marker. The tanker jet used that as a target for its drop.
I watched this carefully-choreographed dance for quite some time. After dropping their load, the jets came roaring by very close to where I was, on their way back to Redmond airport, presumably. If I had had a better camera or lens, I would have taken a video or some shots.
To the north, I could see a plume of cloud-like smoke to the right of Diamond Peak, from the East Waldo Lake fire, which has grown steadily since when I was up here on August 13. It’s one of my favorite hiking areas on the east side of pristine Waldo Lake; major bummer. And it’s in such a remote area there’s little to be done about it until the winter rains come, which won’t happen for a couple of months yet.
And looking directly west, I saw another small fire that must have just started just the day before. All of these are the result of lightning strikes. It was actually not far from the valley that I had driven up to get to the trailhead. I was a bit nervous as to whether it might hit the road I had driven in on.When I got back to my car, several fire crew trucks had just arrived at the pullout I was parked at, but the crews didn’t ask any questions. The area was closed and the fine was potentially up to $5,000. I was almost certainly the only hiker in that whole huge area that day.
Back to the xB: I ordered a rebuilt pump (from a reliable company) and the hoses, but I haven’t got around to putting them on, or hiring my new mobile mechanic to do so. I’m getting used the manual steering, although it does feel heavier than the manual steering I remember on the Honda Civics we had in the 1980s. Does dead power steering make it feel heavier than if it were straight manual steering?
I’m so used to the Armstrong steering on the F100, it feels familiar to exercise the muscles a bit in a slow, tight turn. And now there’s one less thing to break!
I converted my 1991 Tempo GLS to manual steering, using parts from a base model Escort (early Tempos could technically be had with manual steering, but most were ordered with power assist).
I used a remanufactured rack and pinion and brackets/mounts from an Escort. They share a firewall, and many parts such as these, so it was a direct swap even though you could not order a 1991 Tempo with manual steering (it had long become standard throughout the line).
I did this because the old rack was leaking, and I was pretty sure the lines were toast as well. I left the pump, I simply used a rubber hose to loop the pressure into the return on the pump itself. It became quiet, which is particularly unusual for a decades old Ford with ~200k. I guess having no load let it rest easy, haha.
The car drove just fine that way, it felt more like driving a Honda and less like an over-boosted Fairmont. Not to mention, the new rack itself, along with new tie rods and stabilizer bar links, made a substantial difference themselves.
I never had problems parking it or with maneuvers in tight spaces. It was a small car, like your xB. In fact, they have a very similar wheelbase (99.9″ – 98.4″). I can see why you’d be willing to live with it. My ’99 Saturn SL had factory manual steering, and I liked it. It seems to make small cars drive more like go-karts, haha.
I have experienced total lack of assist in larger cars never available with manual steering (both 96s, weirdly, a Concorde and Aerostar), and they were a chore to drive, at times. My ’74 C10 has factory manual steering, I don’t mind it at all. It’s not easy to park anyway (long bed) compared to my cars, but I can usually get it in a parking spot pretty decent (not hanging over the lines or up against someone else’s car lol, I hate that crap).
Here’s a pic of that 1991 GLS how it looked when I bought it. It cleaned up nicely (new headlights, etc), but those pictures are lost to time. All I have are a few shots taken the day or first couple of days I had it. It’s definitely one I regret selling.
Always loved that lip spoiler on the coupe. Sorry for the poor quality pictures, they’re all I have.
The only pic of the Saturn I can find is from behind with its hood up while I was changing the plugs and wires.
Thanx Paul ;
Some really beautiful shots there .
-Nate
Yes, if the car is equipped with power steering but there is no power assist, they are harder to steer than the same car that wasn’t optioned with power steering. And Paul, I know I’m in no position to give you motherly advice, but reading this made me nervous for you even though I know you are fine. Out in such a remote area, alone, with wild fires around, in a closed section of forest! I hope you at least told someone where you would be. Just wait till your father gets home and hears about this young man!
Usually the ratio is different between power steering racks and the non-powered ones. Plus you are having to move the power steering fluid around as well.
I remember many many years ago having to drive an ‘86 Colt Vista when the power steering gave up during a trip. Fine once underway, very much not fine at jogging speed or less. I’d wager a guess not all are created equal if you are humoring leaving it be, because with that Colt, turning from a stop was downright dangerous.
It really is very stiff, both at very low speeds but also when needing to turn the wheel more than a small amount even at speed. We went on a hike yesterday and the drive there took us up a very winding paved mountain road, with hairpins, and I had to use both arms pretty vigorously, and I just couldn’t take some of the tighter curves as briskly as I’m used to.
I have pretty good upper body strength and I’m used to the F100, but even it is not nearly as stiff once under way. And of course the xB’s steering ratio is drastically quicker and the wheel is quite small.
It’s time to put on that new pump!
I’m wondering, Paul, was the pump noisy at all? The one on my partner’s 2011 Accord gave a year’s worth of groaning before it got to the point where it was quite noticeable, and we replaced it.
Luckily, in that car, it’s right on top and didn’t take long. Quiet as a mouse now. We didn’t really realize just how loud the old one was until the new one was fitted.
No. It just went out. I suspect an internal seal popped or something like that.
FWIW, the road I was on was very bumpy and I was going pretty fast. I wonder if that added additional stress to the hydraulic pressure and caused the final failure.
That’s an interesting hypothesis.
My dad has a ’99 Super Duty he bought new, now with well over 300k. A few years ago, he was turning into a tight spot and held it at full lock for quite a bit (I wanted to say something, but that would have done no good lol) and the pressure line blew off the pump. If I remember correctly, it damaged the line and he had to replace it.
Sometimes we don’t think about the forces we inflict on our cars.
Good luck with the replacement, and happy Labor Day.
Since power steering became standard, cars have more caster angle. It creates a stable on-center feeling, but it physically resists even small inputs at speed.
I’ve never understood why power-assisted steering is mandatory on nearly all new cars, even the small and light ones (the only car sold in the US without it recently I can think of if the Alfa 4C). I did much of my early driving in a ’76 Chevette with manual steering and I kid you not that that car had excellent steering feel and good basic handling. It was difficult to steer only when the car wasn’t moving, which I think discourages a bad habit (it’s harsh on several front-end components) and thus is a good feature. I also drove a ’68 Bug which with so little weight over the front wheels had light steering even when barely moving. I’d be fine with unassisted steering in my ’07 Rabbit.
OTOH, I drove a rare colonnade Chevelle without power steering and it must have been about 7 turns lock-to-lock to keep it easy to turn the wheel. Driving on winding roads was a nuisance. Slowest steering I’ve ever experienced. Making the wheel a bit larger for better leverage would have been a better solution.
Whoa those are some of the bluest skies I’ve seen in awhile…
That colonnade Chevelle sounds like my F100; worse, actually. The ’70 Biscayne taxi cab I drove back in the day was atrocious that way too; probably the same box.
As far as why it’s standard, I’d say for the same reason power windows and locks are standard (on mostly everything). Many cheaper versions of vehicles even come with a touch screen standard (Ford Maverick, for instance, 8″ screen standard in the $20k XL). And the manual transmission, it’s quickly disappearing from economy cars and only shows up in enthusiast-focused vehicles like the Ford Bronco and Toyota GR86. You won’t buy a new 3 pedal Mitsubishi Mirage in 2023! It’s no longer cheaper to do, it’s become the opposite.
It’s simply easier to design, build and stock one steering rack, one window regulator, one dash layout, one console etc for the versions most likely to sell. Power accessories have become so cheap, and expected by the consumer, that it’s not worth the trouble to design and build and stock separate versions that lack them.
The Alfa 4C was a purpose built sports car (a simply stunning one at that). It doesn’t really represent $20k Civics and Mavericks.
Power steering allows more freedom of front end alignment, ie you don’t have to consider the ease of steering. Also most of us who remember manual steering forget how skinny the tires were and that too makes it easier to steering.
There are those in the old Volvo community (at least 240 series, but probably earlier ones as well) who will eliminate the power assist for their power steering racks so as to wind up with manual steering. Sometimes this is due to the difficulty of finding a proper manual rack to fit onto an older car that came with manual steering. Sometimes it’s a kind of hack to squeeze a few more horsepower out of an older redblock engine by removing the power steering pump/belt.
I personally have always found that kind of janky and prefer the original manual steering on my car. When the rack needed replacing, I found a NOS rack tucked away at an independent shop in rural Maine. I figure I’m set for another couple of hundred thousand miles.
At least on the Volvo, the powered rack has a different ratio so it’s not only just harder to steer, it also doesn’t allow for quite the same turning radius as an original manual steering setup.
Oh, and by the way, I could watch those DC-10 fire tankers work all day long 🙂
That’s kind of low and slow for a big old KC -10 (a military version of the passenger DC-10 airliner).
Not the safest piloting job in the world. The two things a pilot worries about most are being low and slow; there’s literally no margin for an error or a malfunction. Additional negative issues would be high altitude above sea level, high humidity, and high air temperatures. All of these add to the danger of flying this type of mission.
The DC-10 is from the early 1970s; the KC-10 followed about 10 years later.
Pilots have a joke that names the 3 most useless things in flying:
1) Fuel on the ground.
2) Runway behind you.
3) Altitude above you.
Those guys really tempt fate with #3.
My flight instructor (B-17 A&P during WWII, passed over a decade ago) added to that list that, “The only time you can have too much fuel is when you’re on fire.”
Those large fire bombers were built from retired DC-10 airliners. The original one, now itself retired and used as a parts source by the operator, was a DC-10-10, the domestic version. Cutrently operating are DC-10-30, the international version which can operate heavier. There was a Boeing 747 fire bomber too but it has been sold and converted to a freighter; the DC-10 is as big as there is right now.
Losing hydraulics on a large jetliner is NOT like losing it on a Scion. The result is usually fatal (United Airlines and Turk Hava Yollari DC-10s, Japan Airlines 747).
I stand corrected. These are indeed retired civilian passenger DC-10 aircraft and not KC-10s.
Doesn’t surprise me. Toyota’s so called “reputation for reliability’ was always born out of the sales department, not the actual vehicles. My Fords have been more reliable than the Toyota’s I have owned. Yes, I will buy another Ford. No, I won’t buy another Toyota.
LOL.
Seriously, I realize that Toyotas are not immortal, but this car is now 18 years old, and it’s had exactly two failed parts: a leaking water pump two years ago, and now this. And I abuse this car endlessly, as in taking it on off-road expeditions and generally driving the piss out of it.
I doubt any 18 year-old Ford could top the track record of this one, but then there’s always bound to be exceptions, as well as exaggerations.
I drive a 03 Citroen diesel manual as a daily, one fail that actually imobilised it so far and it was a dirty terminal for the in tank lift pump, I’ve owned worse Toyotas but I’d have another Toyota if the need arose and that was what I could get.
I doing repairs on a friends 04 Corolla currently the drivers window failed fixed now and the clearcoat has lifted from the bonnet thats being done in stages now, the car runs great and likely will do for a lot longer. My daughter now has a 02 handmedown Corrolla to replace the Xsara I gave her, I’m not expecting calls for help with that car she’s 7 hours away so I’m not able to help anyway.
My experience has been similar to yours, but Paul’s right when he points out that the vehicle is old enough to vote. It’s time for accessories like this to fail. I know some tend to pretend this never happens to Toyotas, so I kinda get where you’re coming from.
I just replaced the original water pump, driver CV axle, all four struts/springs and fuel pump on a 25 year old Taurus, these kinds of things are well past due at this age. As long as the main mechanicals are good, and the parts aren’t expensive (they certainly aren’t for a 1997 Ford Taurus LX), and the body isn’t rusted out (not an issue here), little things are expected on any car and part of life with a mechanical machine built by humans and robots built by humans.
> Toyota’s so called “reputation for reliability’ was always born out of the sales department, not the actual vehicles.
Oh, really? Look at a typical Consumer Reports reliability survey (which was not the product of anyone’s sales department) and see what owners themselves reported: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/uncategorized/consumer-reports-automotive-dot-charts-part-5-1976-82-just-before-the-reformation/
Scroll down to Toyotas, or just scroll down until you see a sea of red dots and you’ll be in the same place. Toyota’s reputation for reliability was born from being reliable.
Paul, you could boost your front tire pressure to the max recommended PSI until you make the repair. I did that in my manual steering ’86 Mazda pickup and it helped.
That reminds me of driving my 84 Jetta, I knew when to check tire pressures by the change in steering feel.
Using a power rack & pinion manually means you’re moving fluid from the “cylinder”s through the small orifices that are the tubes that the pinion valving directs from the pump and back so it’s basically like hand cranking a small piston engine filled with fluid. Even fully drained of fluid there’s still extra resistance from a true manual rack &pinion since you’re still squeezing air through that.
Plus there’s a little less precision, between the steering column and actual pinion gear is a torsion bar, which twists and opens up the valve to determine assist – directing the pressurized fluid from the pump to the side of the rack that’s being steered to. With power steering you don’t really feel the torsion bar as the boost essentially smooths it out, but depowered you can feel the springiness, twisting the torsion bar until it hits its stops before the wheels actually begin to turn.
Ratio of course is a big factor as well, the previous two problems can be overcome with a little ingenuity (disassembling the rack &pinion and cutting off the divider from the rack and welding the pinion solid), but you’ll still have “fast ratio” manual steering, though that probably would be livable in the xbox
The picture of the airliner dumping the retardant shows how dangerous this job is. I had a buddy who was a former airline pilot, who worked as a fire fighting pilot during the season. He told me that they were usually younger pilots who hadn’t landed a good job with an airlines. He said they lived kind of fraternity style during the season. He had lost at least one of his friends in a plane crash. I imagine that this work is very exciting, I’m glad that we have people willing to do that job.
I had a union leak in the power steer on my Xsara it was heavy to steer but not undriveable i have manual steering in my Hillman and its heavy at parking speeds but I also have 185x65x14 radial tyres on the front not the 540×13 razor blades it was designed for I prefer it goes where its pointed without fuss on wet roads rather than wonder if I’ll make a turn.
That Xb is very similar to the Toyota Echo I used to own. The ’99 hatchbacks came with manual steering. I haven’t seen any but you could probably swap the rack and have real manual steering.
Probably. But since I already have the pump, this will be easier.
12 years ago I test drove a used Xb stick shift(even was white)
I think the weirdness was just too much for me at the time. Joked with the salesman that it felt like I was driving the UPS truck. HATED that stupid center mounted gauge pod. I pretty much had my foot to the floor most of the test drive, the engine was pretty smooth but down on power compared to what I was used to.
Also I thought $12k for a 4 year old used econobox with 60,000 miles was just stupid.
HATED that stupid center mounted gauge pod.
It’s actually not in the center, but offset towards the driver. And it’s much more in the natural field of view than the typical instrument nacelle. When I drive another car, I now find it annoying to have to move my eyes so far down to read them.