Power Steering

[Gazza 67 0]

How much power should a power steering set up sap? I retro fitted it and all was fine except that the car seems to have lost the initial grunt and now is considerably slower to 60 (and beyond)? Surely not this much that you can physically feel it? Going back to non PS and eating more weetabix if this is the case!!

[mattbenselin 0]

I don't know the official numbers but it should be very little.

 

The pump itself should turn freely and any further drag is caused by the fluid and the belt. The fluid should not cause too much drag but you can over tighten the belt to cause excess friction and sap power that way. I have driven both PAS and non PAS GTIs and could hardly tell any difference though there will be some power loss in the PAS car.

 

Have you done anything else to the car at the same time?

[Gazza 67 0]

I don't know the official numbers but it should be very little.

 

The pump itself should turn freely and any further drag is caused by the fluid and the belt. The fluid should not cause too much drag but you can over tighten the belt to cause excess friction and sap power that way. I have driven both PAS and non PAS GTIs and could hardly tell any difference though there will be some power loss in the PAS car.

 

Have you done anything else to the car at the same time?

 

Had to take the inlet manifold off to remove the alternator bracket to mount the tensioners, but i double checked it and the connectors when complete. May check the tension of the belt and also the pump as it is making a lot of noise from under there but not been able to make my mind up whether it was the pump or the tensioners?

[TheLarneMan 4]

Someone told me years ago it was about 2 or 3 bhp.

[Tom Fenton 1,540]

You have tracked the car up after changing the rack?

[Galifrey 1]

If its sapping that much could you switch to a saxo/106 electric pump?

Edited September 18, 2009 by Porsche911r101

[mattbenselin 0]

Pumps can fail or get blocked so check it, if you need a new one I have 2 good ones for sale.

 

I am using a saxo/106 leccy pump as I run carbs and it works fine. noisier than a mech. one but not really noticeable over the sound of the carbs!

 

So was it doing it before you swapped the parts or just since?

[pablo 0]

pull the belt off and see does the power come back

[DrSarty 90 1 Cars]

The laws of physics dictate that a PS or AC pump, or even supercharger for that matter, must drain some power from the engine. You cannot runs things off the engine, even the alternator without it 'sapping' some power. Naturally the good thing about a SC is it throws more power back in, whereas the others don't.

 

But as said, the worse the condition of the ancilliary (and I don't include a SC in this), the more power it will drain, because it will be requiring more energy/power from the engine to run it. So a poorly AC pump, struggling to push bad fluid through the lines will absolutely sap power from the engine.

 

The million dollar question though is would anyone notice, 1, 2, 4, 6 bhp missing from their engine?

[davey sprocket 14]

Some good suggestions above, especially PPP's.

 

If you took off the inlet manifold.... did you use a new gasket??

The old one might be leaking and weakening the mixture if you didn't.

If you did change it, could you have put the gasket back on upside down, obscuring the inlets?? (can't even remember whether it's possible to do this with these engines if I'm honest!)

 

 

 

 

I do like threads where the OP comes back and spills the beans on the findings!

[Cameron 16]

Its not possible to get the gasket on upside-down, and if it was leaking you'd have a lumpy idle rather than a loss of power.

 

As Dr Sarty says, you can't create energy. The power to run an electric pump has to come from somewhere so you will actually lose a little bit of power when fitting one. Thing is the alternator is probably more efficient than a mechanical pump, so an electric pump does actually sap less power.

 

But back to OP, maybe you should check the tracking.

Edited September 20, 2009 by Cameron

[Gazza 67 0]

Had the tracking done when I swopped over the rack (it was a mile out), checked the tension of the belt and this was okay but the pump was noisy and the steering heavier. Today swopped the pump over and it's sorted.

 

Thanks for all the help.