Power steering

["Gary Beck" <gpbeck@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just an aside to the post by Gill about the power steering.
As a newbie to BMW I spent more than I want to admit to fixing my steering in
a 84 533i.
My son had put the wrong fluid in the in the reservoir. Somehow he thought it
was brake fluid (because of the way the system seems tied together) and then
he realized what he had done a couple months later.  We emptied the system as
best we could and put the correct fluid (Dextron II or III)back in. The saga
began with this horrible noise from what we thought was the pump. And then the
process began with a new pump, a used steering box, a new pressure valve and
switches and a new master cylinder. As you can see this is approaching $800.
The PS was still howling and I finally (stupid me) realized that the return
hose to the pump was cavitating. Why, because the filter in the bottom of the
reservoir had swollen (from the wrong fluid) and was blocking the return line.
Like the man said a $10.00 part.
I have a Bentley manual on this car and the PS filter was not mentioned
anywhere that I could find. A $50 book cost me $800.
BTW I sent an email to Bentley telling them of the emission and never even got
a reply.
The car is now mine and is in a restoration process.
I enjoy reading the digest emails and learning about the quirks and tricks.
Thanks,
Gary
1984 533i under restoration.

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