Hey guys i have a little problem thats been bothering me a lot. Ever since i bought my 96' RS its been tough to steer. I replaced the rack and pinning thinking it was that, but it wasn't. So then i got a new power steering pump, it steered easy for about half an hour then went hard on me again. I dont know what to do?

 

Check the pulley on the power steering pump, it may be slipping on the shaft or the shaft mat have broken internally.

 

How long have you had it? If you haven't driven camaros much, it might just be that what you're experiencing is normal (for a camaro) and you aren't use to it yet. I've found that a lot of other little ding-bat japenese cars have VEEERY easy steering. My lumina's steering was kinda hard (so I thought at the time). My camaro, which is in great condition, has the hardest steering I have ever felt. On a highway I drive on everyday, there are worn down "tracks" where truckers have driven for years, where their tires meet the road. Well the car tends to kinda move around the lane, because of the worn down tracks affecting the path of the car. Sometimes I actually have to put both hands on the wheel. I've test driven other camaros and they feel the same way.

Maybe you really do have a problem, but I do know that 4th gens were designed to steer a little harder than what may feel normal, to give the driver the feeling that he is more in touch with the car and the road.

EDIT:
Personally, I prefer the hard steering of my camaro over the easy steering of some other cars (I can actually steer some of them with my pinky finger). Easy steering seems fake and wimpy to me.

 

Yeah it might be that i'm just not used to having to pull the wheel a little harder. Like the steering is tough but once i get going its pretty easy going. Its just tough as hell to parallel park and do other low speed driving (under 10mph) i have to use two hands and just muscle the thing into parking spots. Do you have to go through that to? I've had the car for about a year now and have done almost anything to just loosen up the steering but as pete said it the shaft could be a factor also.

 

Yeah, I thought I'd just throw out there that camaro steering is harder, in general. But you might have a problem. I'm no car expert, so I couldn't offer you a real good suggestion. But I can't feel the steering myself (so maybe there's a problem, maybe there isn't). The almighty z28petecould probably offer a much better suggestion and more insight than I could, but still, he can't feel it himself.

I don't have a manual trans, but I've heard those are real tight as well. Also, my parking break lever is pretty though too (I'm building up muscle from pulling that thing everyday). And I do have to muscle the car into parallel spots. In a way I like the hard steering, but in some of the low-speed sitations it can kinda suck sometimes, as you say. But hey, use some of that american muscle to pilot that american muscle!!!

Something odd I'd also like to mention - in my lumina (which had hard steering kinda) I was having steering problems and HAD to get some rack/pinion work. I think the mechanic replaced the rack and pinion if I'm not mistaken, but he told me the gears were nearly worn down to a nub. The steering was hard, unresponsive, and whiney before he worked on it. When I got it back, the steering was easy cheesey. Never felt so easy before. Well, a few days later, it felt hard again!!! Just like happened with yours. I have no idea why this is, but there wasn't anything wrong with my steering after having been worked on (no whiney sound or unresponsiveness, but was hard again).

 

Yeah thats weird how you get something fixed and about 3 days later shes rough again. I mean i guess the steering doesnt bother me too much but i have my fair share of cuss words when i'm trying to park it in a tight space lol so i was just wondering if there was any easy fix to it. Its not a big enough problem for me to take it anywhere and pay for it to be fixed for 3 days hehe