Problems after long idle

[Pintony]

Video.

 

[Black91SHO]

I would discontinue idling for hours on end. Nothing good can come of it. I doubt your rack problems are related to towing, as long as you tow with the steering wheel unlocked ;-). Once you have a rack failure and get metal particles in the system, it can damage replacement racks. Install a Magnafine filter in the return line to take care of that.

I've idled my car for hours on end for about two years now and haven't had any problems with it until recently, so the idling isn't a problem.

Yes, something good can come from idling the car when towing, because it spares my rack and pinion. When I wasn't idling my car while towing, I went through 1 rack and pinion every year or so. Now, my racks don't wear out.

You said my rack would be fine if I left the steering wheel unlocked. That's actually backward. If I left the steering wheel locked, the rack would last quite a while, because there's hardly any movement in it. I know because I did that for a while. What wears the rack out is the grinding of the gears in the rack, due to their movement from being unlocked, while no fluid is pumping through the system to keep it cool and properly lubricated. It also causes the seals to fail and destroys the power steering pump with the little metal shavings it causes. Trust me, I'm an expert in the unfortunate effects of towing a SHO without it running. I've been towing my SHOs, sometimes multiple times a week, for the past 10 years. I used to lock my steering wheel, but that was dangerous. It actually caused me to jackknife one day while taking a turn at a stop light very slowly in the rain.

The metal particles in the system won't affect a new rack because you always flush the entire system when you change out a rack. Anyone who doesn't flush the system shouldn't be working on cars. lol

A Magnafine filter is only necessary if I'm not idling my car while towing it, because that's what causes the metal particles. But if I run my car without idling it and while using the Magnafine filter, it won't correct the grinding in the gears that causes slack in the steering and other issues, and it won't keep the seals from blowing out and leaking eventually.

I appreciate the ideas, but they won't work for my situation, unfortunately. Every SHO I've had has had this rack problem from towing them, so it's definitely a towing-related issue. I never had this problem with the SHOs I didn't tow.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

 

[Black91SHO]

I may have fixed the idle problem. I'll know tomorrow after my trip. The plugs and wires were dying, and the cats were bad. So I gutted the cats for the moment and replaced the plugs and wires. It fixed another idle problem I was having, so we'll see if it fixes this idle problem. I'm not convinced it will, but I've seen weirder things. A spark plug wire was working sometimes, then would just stop working for a long period of driving. So weird. I've never seen that happen before. The car sounds nasty now without the cats. May need to go back to stock exhaust again.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk