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Recently I drove on some very rough gravel roads and hit a big rock, damaged the oil pan an crushed the exhaust into the body work. Changed the pan, replaced the exhaust, and took out the shifter and restrait the shifter and all the linkages, which have some kind of rubber on the joints where they connect to the transmission. The problem is, after I put everything back together, there is a clicking sound whenever I change gear, engine running or not, car moving or not. I am pretty sure the noise wasn’t there before the wreck. Is this noise something serious or could it be just bad rubber at the joints, or is it internal transmission damage? The car runs, drives and shifts fine, without any problems aside from that noise. Year 2002, transmission is 5 speed manual, and it’s a 2 liter direct injection diesel.
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You could have bent linkage or binding. replace any bushing.
Jack the car up and put it on jack stands and lay under the
linkage. Have someone operate the shifter to help locate the noise.It could be any or all of the above. You really can’t tell in a situation like that until you get in there and find the damage. Unfortunately we can’t hear the noise and even if we did, I’m not sure how much help we could offer. I would suggest a close examination of the damaged parts to see if you can find the source of the problem.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Given that my friend has a lift, and after having the car in the air several times, i still cannot be sure where the noise comes from, either where linkage meets the transmission or inside it, but given that it’s been more than two months after the wreck and transmission shifts as good as it ever has, is precise and doesn’t pop out of gear, I assume it’s nothing serious. Being that new linkage is impossible to find and junkyard units can be faulty as well, I will not touch anything until I a problem appears.
Another thing, does power steering fluid that smells burnt and looks really black mean a failing pump? Changed the fluid three times (problem was present since I bought the car), but the smell and color would come back after a couple months, also after a long (motorway) journey the power steering would squeal when I turn the steering wheel, the noise is quieter when the car cools down but doesn’t go away until I change the fluid, which comes out as really black. Car has 310,000 KMs on the clock.
Power steering fluid hardly ever gets changed. It’s hard to make the leap that the pump is actually bad just because the fluid is dirty. You might start by changing out the fluid and seeing if it has an effect.
As for the linkage, well, as you say if it’s not causing a problem best leave well enough alone. Keep an eye on it though.
After a long drive, around 1000 KM, the power steering fluid has changed it’s color to brown from bright pink which I put in last month. Given that I was driving on hilly roads, I noticed that on slow sections with lots of bends (and a lot of steering lock to lock) the pump (or some other part of the system) had developed a high pitch squealing noise when turning the wheel, also I could smell strong smell of burned ATF fluid (the same smell when I changed the fluid/open the power steering cap), even with the fan turned off, and windows up, and it was also a rather cold day (around 6 degrees Celsius).
After I came home, the next day I took a look at the power steering dipstick and saw brown fluid. Could this be an indication of overheat or stress? The fluid also smelled bad (unlike the new one I put in a month ago), but the squeal is gone.
Couple of days ago I changed the engine oil (not relevant to this problem) and looked underneath the bumper, saw two important things, one was a radiator leak at the seam where aluminium meets plastic, and a rather small cooler for the power steering system, which is just one pipe and no fins. Can I improve it’s cooling capability if I weld thin aluminium plates to the pipes (I have a friend with good welding skills) so that the power steering can cool more efficiently? Also regarding the radiator leak, my mechanic who changed the oil advised me to buy liquid “Liqui Moly” radiator sealant (which I did) but I haven’t put it in yet because he said it need to be put in before a longer journey for the sealant to be effective, and I will be making another almost 1000KM trip in the near future, but am fearful of troubles with the cooling system should I put that sealer in. Should I put that sealer in, and are there any bad side effects? The car has been loosing a liter of coolant every week.
I don’t recommend the use of sealants to cure leaks as outlined here.
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/finding-and-fixing-leaks
That said, it does sound like there may be a power steering issue as well. You might inspect all the lines to see if there was any damage from the incident you mentioned before. As for a home made power steering cooler, if you have an issue with the power steering system, adding more parts likely won’t cure it.
Sounds like you need to do a good inspection of the undercarriage of that vehicle for starters to see what you’re dealing with.
Good luck and keep us posted.
As far as the “incident” is concerned all damage that was obvious was fixed right away, including the oil pan and a big metal subframe (my mechanic called it a “bridge”) oil pan, parts of the exhaust, and a coolant pipe which was ruined, and all those parts came off a wrecked mazda 323 diesel (the same car mechanically) that was rear ended, only thing I didn’t fix so far is the bent fuel tank (that’s another issue with the fuel gauge not going under 1/4), but I couldn’t replace that given that one on the junked mazda was useless.
As far as power steering issues, they started way before the “accident”, six months after I bought the car. When I picked the car up, power steering fluid was bright pink, and everything worked fine (I did buy the car from my uncle who maintained it very well since he used it to travel to Russia every two months, a 2500KM journey), but after a couple of longer road trips, power steering fluid became dirty (almost black) and had a burnt smell. After that I changed the fluid in the reservoir, but haven’t really flushed the system, and the problem was gone. Fast forward to a month ago, the fluid had changed it’s color again, but this time I removed the return hose, and flushed the entire system. Then I had this road trip on monday, and the problem came back again, only the fluid isn’t as bad looking as it used to be before the change. My guess is that something causes the fluid to overheat, or maybe I am using the wrong type of fluid (I use what the manual calls for and that’s ATF 3), or should I just leave it alone? I am fearing the rack might develop some issues from being exposed to dirty fluid for long period of time.
As far as the coolant loss issue, it was present since the day I bought the car, but not as severe. Liter of anti freeze was required every month or so. Then the thermostat failed closed on labor day weekend (1st of may here) and I had to remove it at the time, for that whole summer the car worked fine without the thermostat, and in september I put new one in when i changed the oil. Since the thermostat failure the car had been loosing a liter of coolant a week. When I removed the old one, and put the new one back in, I noticed both the top and bottom radiator hoses had cracks and were old. Only on my last oil change did I notice small amount of (red) coolant leaking from the bottom of the radiator, given that there is also residue there, I assume the radiator had been leaking for a while, whether it was damaged in the accident I am not sure, but given that the car had leaked coolant from day one, I don’t think so. Could the problem be just the bad hoses, or should I be looking for a new radiator as well? Also can a junkyard unit be any good, given that quality of some aftermarket parts isn’t up to the job?
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