I’ve done it. It’s not too hard but it’s fussy and cramped quarters.
Ok things you’ll need:
- A way to get the car up so you can get under it comfortably enough.
- 16mm ratcheting box wrench
- Really stubby 6mm hex, or what I did was cut a short section of a 6mm hex key and turn it with a wrench - there’s not enough room to get at the bolt with a regular ratchet and hex socket.
- Replacement banjo bolt AND two new crush washers for the connection at the pump
- New o-rings (I usually get two in case I mess one up) for where the pump connects to the engine
- New subframe bolts because you will need to remove the driver side engine mount
- 1 or 2 liters of PS fluid. I got 2 so I could flush the lines. You’ll want to do this if your pump has been grinding and adding “glitter” to the fluid
Procedure:
- Lift / jack up the car. Probably worth it to remove the front driver wheel, but I’m not sure it’s necessary.
- Lock the steering wheel - do not move it
- Remove front bumper
- Put front core support in service position (not super necessary but it provides some necessary room for working)
- Drain the PS fluid by disconnecting one of the return hoses at the connection to the cooler at the front of the radiator (the connection is behind the core support behind the radiator, easy access from below)
- Remove swaybar bushing brackets and pull swaybar down. It doesn’t need to be disconnected at the end links or the lower control arms.
- Support the engine from above with one of those beam things or what I did, which was put my jack under the oil pan (place a wood 2x4 about 10” +/- wide between the jack and pan to distribute out the load), jack the engine up about 1/4”. Then take a jack stand or two or similar support and use it to support the 2x4 and the engine I also used door / window shims to fill the gap between the jack stand and the wood.
- Once the engine is supported, remove the lower engine mount bracket. You might be able to leave the engine mount in place, but I don’t recall. I removed mine because I took the opportunity to put in some upgraded ones from Stern.
- Now you should be able to have access to the pump and its hoses.
- Remove the hoses. The banjo bolt one will be relatively easy. The one with the short rubber section that connects to a hard pipe going up toward the top of the engine is very tough. For that one, there is a 10mm bolt connection higher up the pipe that secures it to the engine. Loosening this bolt helps. The banjo bolt one is a pressure supply line going to the rack. The difficult one is the return / suction line coming from the reservoir iirc and supplying the pump.
- The pump is held to the engine by way of a bracket armature thing. The three bolts are accessed on the other side of the engine from the pump. Two of the 6mm hex socket bolts and one 16mm hex head bolt. There’s not much room to get at them.
- Loosening / removing (you can leave them hanging in the holes) them will allow the bracket and the pump to move forward and be removed.
- Remove the bracket from the pump and transfer it to the new pump.
- If there’s no PS fluid in your replacement pump, add some to it.
- Check the spline that connects the pump to the engine. Sometimes it’s these parts that fail, not the pump. If the teeth are stripped, replace it as well.
- Put it all back together. I don’t recall the torque values for the bolts. The 7zap website has them I think. The banjo bolt will be super hard to get at and actually get the torque value. Tight is what you’re after, but don’t kill it. It think it was 55Nm but I couldn’t get a torque wrench in there.
- Fill the reservoir and check for leaks. Put the cap on the reservoir, or it will splash.
- Then start the engine, NOT MOVING THE STEERING WHEEL, for TWO SECONDS, then shut it off.
- Refill the reservoir.
- Repeat until the pump stops making sounds.
- When the pump is silent, you can let it run for longer, but I stayed with the two second thing until the reservoir didn’t need to be refilled any longer. There should be no bubbles.
The flushing procedure is roughly the same, except you can leave the return line from the cooler open and discharge the fluid into a container until it runs clean. YouTube has some videos on this.
I also removed the reservoir and cleaned the non-removable filter inside. I don’t recall using brake cleaner, because I was worried about something plastic-safe. I forget what I used. If you use water, make sure it dries completely before reinstalling. No water. Water bad.
I also installed an Edelmann inline filter next to the connection to the cooler and near the driver side auxiliary radiator. Hasn’t hurt so far.
Search the forums here, too. The PS stuff has come up a few times over the last year or so.
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