My power steering pump broke. Time to delete?

[Xist]

First of all, the car cost $250 over three years ago. The highway patrol ordered me to replace the windshield and I bought an $86 catalytic converter from Amazon. I replaced the timing belt, accessory belts, hoses, etc. I replaced the little cover under the windshield for cabin air. A tire blew and damaged the front bumper, fender, a headlight, resonator, and headlight wiring. I replaced everything for less than $200. My brother walked on it and I pulled out the dents the best that I could. I damaged the spark plug tube seals, they leaked, and I replaced the spark plugs and wires. The distributor points were corroded and it was leaking, so I replaced that, too. The starter went out, possibly because of the distributor leak. Yesterday I broke the power steering pump.

I do not know why you keep blaming the car, I am the one that keeps messing up. I also do not know why it is so important to you for me to start messing up another car.

I do not have any idea what you want me to do instead of working on my car.

[Stubby79]

You shouldn't have to keep replacing your belts. If the belt isn't glazed, the pulleys could be...you can try burnishing them with a wire wheel or something. Or, I suppose, whatever you're adjusting isn't staying adjusted. But, if your belts are healthy, you can try some belt lube...yes, it's lube, but it's also sticky and can actually help the belt grip better. If nothing else, it'll slip quieter!

You don't usually notice power steering belts slipping until you are doing a hard turn at low or no speed. If you're hearing it on startup, it's most likely your alternator belt. Your alternator might be working hard to charge your battery back up if there's a parasitic draw or if your battery is unhealthy, and the excessive load causes the belt to slip. It can also slip if it's getting wet while parked.

You might find a different way to tighten your PS belt. Or leave it alone, since, as I said, it shouldn't slip except possibly under heavy steering load, which doesn't necessarily happen often.

I'm not sure if Redpoint5's point is to "know when to cut your losses" or if it matches my own, which is that it's sometimes painful to watch antics like these happen over and over, usually to the same people...most of us have been there, but most of us don't advertise it! Whatever...as long as you're having fun and, hopefully, learning along the way...

[redpoint5]

Is this not the car that had the head milled and a new gasket put on? ... and wasn't there something about coolant in the oil or vice versa? Then there was a battery thread, or was it alternator?

[Xist]

The head gasket blew in the Civic. It is still not operational. I replaced the alternator twice in the Civic as well, calling in the warranty the second time. I also killed the battery in the Civic, although I needed to replace the one in my Accord too. However, it was partially under warranty from my sister-in-law.

[iikhod]

In my worthless opinion, those are still small and normal repairs for a car of that age.
Parts are usually cheap and easy-ish to replace. Who knows, you might get a 100k miles out of that car?
Hondas are hard to kill with driving.

Some people i know were shocked when they heard i replaced shocks, springs, strut bearings and exhaust from the cat on my 750 euros Toyota with 400000kms on the clock

[Piotrsko]

My $0.02: as long as you are replacing piddly non complex things, it's your call when to get a new set of problems covered in an aged vehicle. I lose interest after the tenth time I bash my hand, my son is way more stubborn, my wife won't bash her hand a all. Her bug threw an alternator belt once and became "unreliable" and was immediately replaced with a brand new Focus.

NOBODY here ever had a restored "classic" ford, buick, chevy?

[RustyLugNut]

Originally Posted by Xist

The head gasket blew in the Civic. It is still not operational. I replaced the alternator twice in the Civic as well, calling in the warranty the second time. I also killed the battery in the Civic, although I needed to replace the one in my Accord too. However, it was partially under warranty from my sister-in-law.

Get two vehicles as closely matched as possible. Thus, what you learn on one applies to the other. And in a dire situation, you can scavenge parts. Though you will have to make that good later down the line, of course.

Your goal is to have one running while the other is being repaired.

All my diesel trucks are in pairs. My diesel Mercedes. My diesel Sprinters. Well, I sold one Sprinter. Might sell the other now. I have a pair of Dodge Magnums. Both are down because some idiot kid rear-ended the perfectly good one.

All my vehicles are over 200K miles. I just like to keep busy. I don't drink, do drugs or consort with downfallen women. Though my wife acts downfallen - she is not.

[redpoint5]

A friend of mine has 2x 1996 Honda Accords. He was convinced he had a fuel problem once so I helped him swap injectors. The problem didn't follow the injector. Turned out he had a bad plug wire. Anyhow, he should have started simple before assuming it was an injector issue, but at least we could rule out injectors as being the problem. It's a nice way to avoid throwing parts at a problem in an attempt to fix it.

[Ecky]

I'd personally take the pump off. Heck, people pull perfectly working power steering out of their vehicles on here.

Don't let people on here give you a hard time. Nobody else knows your circumstances as well as you, and we're all just trying to make the best of what we have.

[Xist]

Part of the reason that I decided to replace the pump is that I spent an hour or two trying to find specific power steering delete instructions for my car. None of the instructions still had pictures and most of the results weren't for my car anyway. Some were written so poorly that I would need to spend extra effort into deciphering them.

I could make a big project out of it, or I could just install a pump from a junkyard and try to work on my Civic, which already has a deleted power steering.

I planned on offering $25 for one. Right places were asking $30. Nobody gave me feedback on whether that was reasonable, so I tried to see which would arrive first. The first one would not be here for eight days.

The others would take another week.

I checked the next couple. One was $3 more, but was supposed to arrive three days earlier.

$25? Was $25 a reasonable offer?

They accepted it!

So, for $25 I taught everyone to not hulk out when adjusting bolts.

Don't hulk out when adjusting bolts!