I have a '99 Y33 that I'm trying to give to my stepson. I had stopped driving it because I didn't really need to any longer, but when I did it had a massive power steering leak that I hadn't tackled yet. When I decided to give it to him I wanted to fix the major problems the car had first, of course.

One of the first things I tackled was the lack of AC. I bought a new compressor/condenser kit from RA and put all of that on, along with a new thermostat. This meant pulling everything from the front of the engine forward, which was a bit daunting at first. But, once I got in there everything made much more sense. The hardest part of this was getting the compressors swapped due to Infiniti's Tetris-like engineering. I unbolted the sway bar's end links in order to drop it down and that made all the difference.

Once I mounted and sealed all the new AC components, I realized I had no tensioner pulley for the AC belt. I looked for a pulley online but could only find the other one for the opposite side. Eventually I realized I had an unused pulley on a Honda Pilot tensioner assembly I wasn't going to use and couldn't return, so I bought some spacers and such to get it to sit at the right height when bolted to the stud that I did still have on the car.

Next I rebuilt the power steering pump, which is where most of the leaks came from, I believe. I also replaced the pressure hose just to be safe, and let me tell you...I'm not buying ANY Infiniti engineers a beer anytime soon. When replacing the hose I had to remove the power steering pressure switch from the old hose and transferred it to the new hose, by using a set of pliers to turn the switch while the hose was clamped in a vise. Not ideal, but I couldn't find a small enough wrench to fit under the collar of the switch. Thanks, Infiniti!!

Finally I got everything put back together and cleaned up, topped off all the fluids and bled the antifreeze and power steering fluid. The car's front was on jack stands the whole time, so the power steering seemed to work beautifully while I turned the wheel back and forth to get all the air out. But...when I lowered the car to the ground the power steering wasn't working. I looked around the system and saw no leaks, but I know the pump works because of the way the fluid moved through the reservoir (which I also cleaned out thoroughly, getting the screen hopefully very clean).

I thought maybe it could be the switch, that I possibly damaged it while using pliers on the copper seal. A new one cost me about $90 and had to come from Japan, and that arrived Monday night. I installed it, but when the car started up, still no power steering.

I don't have much experience at all with troubleshooting power steering systems. Can anyone give me a few places to look for possible issues? Thanks!!

I haven't had the pleasure of dealing with this before, so this is just a wild guess. I would double check the electrical signal that the pressure switch is getting. I assume that with all of your work you've found the factory service manual, but if not testing this should be outlined in there. It's available at www.infinitiservicemanual.com

Hmm i just refurbished my 2000s system recently with a new pump (original rack and high pressure line) but I did have issues months back with the PS reservoir filter being clogged. Since its not a normal change interval, the internal filter seems to get clogged. The crappy part was the OE reservoir is like $400. Nope. I ended up getting a BMW one from a 90s 5 series which happens to have both bottom feed and return lines that fit well. That fixed that issue. Beyond that, I'm at a loss as you've gone the route I would have. Good luck and keep us posted

Sounds like you’ve done the things I’ve done, except for both of these jobs I took it to a shop for that reason! The a/c compressor I couldn’t even get a hint how to remove. The rest of the a/c components are fairly straightforward.

As for the power steering pump, when you say: “I rebuilt the power steering pump”, that’s kinda where I’m concerned. I personally don’t think it’s ever worth rebuilding components like that, considering even a cheap new one is better. I brought an eBay one for $60 without the pulley. Even “auto parts” store re-manufactured moving parts are a gamble.

Also when you say there’s no power steering: are you saying that the belt is on there, but the steering is stiff, or?

There’s also a fuse on the interior panel for power steering pump, I think it’s labeled EPS

I understand, and I figured I'd try a seal rebuild kit first. It's just the O-rings and gaskets inside the pump housing. When I disassembled the pump, there was no visible wear or damage, and all the vanes smoothly slid in each channel. My thinking was that I'd try to rebuild it and see if it worked before spending a little more on a new pump. At this point, the car isn't worth much in terms of sale value so I wanted to stay as low budget as possible. I didn't see the EPS fuse, so I need to check that next.

I'd planned on taking the car to a nearby shop to have them diagnose the actual problem and then see if I could fix it. I just hope it isn't the steering rack. I also bought the seal kit for the rack, but I really do not want to get into that once I looked at the tech manual's process. I can replace the rack, but I just don't know at this point if it's worth sinking another $3-400 into.

Hopefully it's just that blown fuse...thanks!

DannyLeDuc wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 19, 2021 7:17 am

I understand, and I figured I'd try a seal rebuild kit first. It's just the O-rings and gaskets inside the pump housing. When I disassembled the pump, there was no visible wear or damage, and all the vanes smoothly slid in each channel. My thinking was that I'd try to rebuild it and see if it worked before spending a little more on a new pump.

I see no issue whatsoever with rehabbing an original nissan pump, vs. buying some cardone garbage.
the issue is... did you do it correctly?
I'm not slamming you, I'd just say from personal experience that there are subtleties.
pay attention to the spool valve for the regulated output pressure.
if the stackup (new o-rings) doesn't set the spool valve at the correct diplacement inside the pump body, the symptoms will be just as you describe.

DannyLeDuc wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 19, 2021 7:17 am

I understand, and I figured I'd try a seal rebuild kit first. It's just the O-rings and gaskets inside the pump housing. When I disassembled the pump, there was no visible wear or damage, and all the vanes smoothly slid in each channel. My thinking was that I'd try to rebuild it and see if it worked before spending a little more on a new pump. At this point, the car isn't worth much in terms of sale value so I wanted to stay as low budget as possible. I didn't see the EPS fuse, so I need to check that next.

I'd planned on taking the car to a nearby shop to have them diagnose the actual problem and then see if I could fix it. I just hope it isn't the steering rack. I also bought the seal kit for the rack, but I really do not want to get into that once I looked at the tech manual's process. I can replace the rack, but I just don't know at this point if it's worth sinking another $3-400 into.

Hopefully it's just that blown fuse...thanks!

That's amazing that you were able to do that though! Only thing I know how to do with a power steering pump is change the belt and remove the pulley. I was trying to remove the bracket from a salvage one and gave up (mine somehow got a huge chip to where the screw just barely holds to tighten).

Hopefully the fuse does fix your issue...usually a bad steering rack results in excessive play. Not stiffness

Finally got over COVID-19 and bought a BBB pump from RA. Installed it last night, with only a minimum of thoughts of suicide, lol.

The banjo fitting on the stock pump had a (I believe) M12-1.25 fine thread nut, same as the pulley bolt. When I got the new pump ready to go, I tried spinning that nut back on, but no luck. I looked around for a different nut but couldn't find anything that fit in the garage. I grabbed the pump (thankfully) and headed to Lowe's to find a nut that fit. After poking around for wayyyy too long, I figured out that it was a 1/2-20 thread on the replacement pump. And naturally, Lowe's was out of just that one size. Sigh.

I got smarter and headed to O'Reillys, and found a pack of nuts that fit that for about $5. WIN. Right before I left, I had a hunch and checked the pulley threads as well. ALSO not an M12-1.25. This one turned out to be a 7/16 thread. $5 more, and another WIN. Ran home and got those together, but now the two bolts that thread into the housing of the pump on either side of the pivot thru-bolt didn't want to start. By this time, it's dark out and I'm f-bombing quite freely.

I took a deep breath and looked at everything once more, and realized the pump was slightly out of position. Tapped it deeper into the receptacle and tried again, and the bolts threaded right in. Connected the return line and the wiring connector, popped the belt on and adjusted the tension, filled the reservoir, then pulled the car off the ramps. Bam, et voila! Steering now works!!

I bled the system for a while, and took it out for a drive. Smooth as freaking silk once again, just like the old days. Really wish I'd gone this route from the start, and always will in the future on any car I mess with, lol.

TL;DR version: New pump did the trick, and don't ask me to rebuild your power steering pump!

I'm glad you got it straightened out. That had to be one rewarding test drive!

Oh, yes!