I have a 98 Camaro Z28. My steering is tight. It takes extra effort to turn the wheel. I pulled out the fluid in the reservoir (which was full) and put in a bottle of Lucas PS additive. It helped it a little but didn't fully fix it. The tires are looking fine, no strange wear, tie rod ends are fine ball joints are fine.... Could it be the Rack and pinion, or the PS pump????? How can I diagnosis it???

 

My guess is the power steering pump. Does it whin when you turn the wheel? I don't know of any way of testing the power steering pump. We replaced one last year, it caused the vehicle to have hard steering, dragged down the rpms and whinned when trying to turn the wheel if the car was not moving.

 

The pump does not make any noise. It did whine a bit before I put in the Lucas additive. But nothing major. When I turn the wheel it does not affect my engine RPMs. \

I am thinking that If I Jack up the front of the car and turn the wheels back and forth with the engine OFF and it is still hard to turn then it would likely be the rack.... Any thoughts......

 

From my understanding of the rack and pinion and power steering, it only works as well as the pump allows it to. With rack n pinions that I have had experience with that are bad, you will notice the powersteering fluid low, you fill it up, then after driving it, the reservoir is overfilled. Also, leaking around the boots. I'm still leaning towards the pump, especially if it was whinning before you put in the additive.

 

I agree its probably the pump since it was making some noise. Unf there isnt a good way to diagnose it for sure.

 

i'm guessing its the pump too..

 

I jacked up the front end and turned the wheel with the engine off. It still has a few "rough" spots but turned easily. Then I started it up and turned the wheel, it did not change it much. I don't know what to think. Maybe it's both???? I will prob end up doing a pump.