Today my power steering has gone out. The pump has been rebuilt by BBA reman less than 6 months ago. I found it strange that it has gone out without warning. Well tonight I hoped in and noticed that the battery light was on. According to my Scangauge II the alternator must be working because it is reading 13.8 volts at idle. Can the power steering failure be the cause of the battery light being on? Is there a way to test if the power steering pump is the cause of my problems?

 

Did you ever find out what this was I have this exact same thing happen to me?

 

Is the battery cable free from corrosion? I had powersteering go out and then the car wouldn't start. I had to push/gravity start it and then it worked fine. Back home I checked the battery cable and it had some very minor corrosion, hardly visible, but between the stud and cable. Car still wouldn't start but then I cleaned that and it started fine.

 

That's a good point about the corrosion. I don't know where the ScanGauge picks up the alternator output voltage, so I would check the voltage at the positive battery terminal (check the actual battery post itself, not the clamp that holds the cable to the battery.) Just because the alternator is putting out the proper voltage, that doesn't necessarily mean that the battery terminal is seeing the same voltage.

Also, is the 13.8 V from the alternator the reading you're getting at idle, or at a higher engine speed? While 13.8 V is (barely) enough to keep a battery charged, you should be seeing well over 14 V at normal engine speeds.

 

It turned out to be the power steering pump. I sent it off to BBA and it was covered under warranty. I installed the one they sent me and haven't had any problems.
The volt reading I was getting was at idle. Now with this over in for about a week now and my volts are reading about 13.5. I think that is about normal for my car. Once it gets to 14 volts that would be considered over volt.

 

Glad it worked out. I missed in your first post that the 13.8 V reading was at idle. That's a good number. I agree that 14+ Volts *at idle* would be too high, although perfectly normal at higher RPM.

 

Cool I am guessing i am on the same boat! I will be ordering a PS pump from BBA.

So just to confirm you just changed the pump itself none of the wiring and/or the fan?

I think ima go ahead and buy the fan as well. thanks for the help I was starting to worry!!

 

That is correct, only changed the power steering pump. The wiring and fan all looked and seemed to work properly. BBA was great. I am not sure how they had such fast turn around but only down for about a week including shipping back and forth.

 

Cool I saw BBA has the remans on eBay ima try that! and cross my fingers everything else is good.