So one night it was snowing really heavy. Me being a dumb ass, I ended up breaking and sharply turning hard in the parking lot. Since then my power steering has'nt worked properly. The p-steering wont kick in unless Im accelerating. Ive taken it to a local shop I normally do. They told me they could not get in to the diagnostic and I should take it to the dealership. I cant really afford that option. I have been told by a few knowledgable friends it could be the pump.

lve always wanted to learn about and fix my own car. Im more than willing to purchase and read a few or many books. Is this a good place to start? Is it difficult to replace the pump? My car is a Potiac 1994 Bonneville SSEI. sorry about broken posts, using psp at work. I appreciate any advice and help.

first look at the fluid level and condition. make sure it isnt leaking any and repair whatever is leaking. 90% of the time when your p/s pump is gone it is noisy as hell.

so yeah,...check out the fluid and report back to me,...ill tell you where to go from there.

Yep, they whine like hell when the fluid is low.

Its an easy fix if it really is broken. One from a junkyard will probably work just fine. You take off the serpentine belt with either a 13 or 15mm wrench by putting the wrench on the tensioner bolt head and turning the entire tensioner unit. (The bolt head does not turn!!! You wouldn't believe how many ameteur gearheads will dive into something like this and shear the head or break the tensioner.)

Once the belt is off it is a simple matter of disconnecting the hydraulic lines and unbolting the pump from its bracket.

At least that's how I remember the hydraulic systems on the 3800s to be.

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it has plenty of fluid. what should I do now? by the way it does whine when its not working correctly.

I talked to a mechanic today and he told me that replacing a bad ps pump can take 3 hours and I should pick up a manual from auto zone. Is this good advice? I have wrenches what else will I need?

Probably the best advice I've ever heard a mechanic give.

You just need a Haynes or Chilton repair manual that covers your car. They're around $20 and it'll pay for itself the first time you use it. It covers how to repair or replace just about everything on the car, short of rebuilding the tranny.

So I stopped by AutoZone today to see if they had one of those manuals. Didn't see one that specifically covered my model of car with the supercharger, I found one that covered Pontiac, Buick and Oldsmobile full size vehicles which had the 3800 series engine(which is the same as mine), would that manual work? Because they couldn't even order me a manual that covered a Supercharged Bonneville.

The generic manual should be good enough for your purpose.

Well I thought it was going to be easier than this, I picked up the manual. I'm looking at where it says my power steering pump is, but thats just where the resivior is at. I believe the pump is actually below the generator, I followed the hose from the resivior to find this out, I'm going to post pics soon. But it looks like I'd have to remove the generator before I can get to the power steering pump.