this morning when i was moving off to work, i had a high-pitched squeaky sound coming from the front hoops at nearly full-lock to the right while moving out of the garage. it was pretty loud but it went away after a while. when i reached my workplace i tried doing full-locks both to the left and right but couldn't reproduce that sound. and just this evening i was going out to get some dinner and same thing happened... sharp squeak while turning right out of the garage. tried to reproduce that damn thing again when the engine was warmed up but nothing. anybody know anything? steering problems... cv joints? incidentally, is there ever a need to flush the power steering fluid and replace it with new fluid???

sounds like the belt may have been slipping which will mainly happen cold. Get the tension checked and always avoid full lock. Turn until the wheel stops then back off a few mm as this puts too much strain on the ps pump and rack.

ah cheers for that Madmagna

my mums 96 Camry does the same thing

Trav

sounds like the belt may have been slipping which will mainly happen cold. Get the tension checked and always avoid full lock. Turn until the wheel stops then back off a few mm as this puts too much strain on the ps pump and rack.

the sound didn't appear today at all. if it is indeed the belt, would the squeaky sound be intermittent or consistent? and what does a worn fan belt look like? incidentally, the fan belt is the one that sits below the covered timing belt right?? and is there a service replacement date for it?

i just sent my car to midas for service last week and an aircon service 2 weeks ago. none of them told me i had a worn fan belt. you reckon these guys would bother to check? midas has a service checklist and the drive belt received an OK. then again, they could've just ticked all that shit without even lookin one bit.

The Belts are viaable from outside but yes do sit low down in the bay. the belts do go hard and tend to get small cracks in them.
There is no specific date for replacement. Midas should have checked them then again if you service at Midas might as well service at KMart.
At worst they should have been adjusted.
The belts going hard will give a quieter squeak which again can go away when hot however a slipping belt will tend more to sreach.

how do you do a power steering fluid flush and what tools are needed?

Fairly easy, disconnect the low pressure line and feed it in to a drain. Some say start the car however I prefer to remove the belt and rotate the pump of a speed brace or similar. as the fluid bottle empties re fill it. There is a bit of waste and some old residue will remain.
Either that or wait for it to leak like most magna's do and just keep topping it up lol

Fairly easy, disconnect the low pressure line and feed it in to a drain. Some say start the car however I prefer to remove the belt and rotate the pump of a speed brace or similar. as the fluid bottle empties re fill it. There is a bit of waste and some old residue will remain.
Either that or wait for it to leak like most magna's do and just keep topping it up lol

on to another issue cos you seem to know alot ... hey what's the go with the replacement of water pumps? some people say to change it everytime you change the timing belt. most mechanics out there say change it when it fails (even the guys at mitsu). what's your opinion on this?

if it aint broken, dont fix it. :lol:

Sorry in some cases the if don't broke don't fix it does not apply, this is one of these cases.
In most cases I recommend the water pump be replaced. I recently did a KE Verada belt, the car had done about 158000 and there was the odd drip under the car once in a while that had been happening for quite some time. The water pump felt not too bad in the bearings however once off I could clearly see where it had been weeping.
Feeling the pump while on the car most would not ahve given it a second look.
It is up to you however the pump cost is far less than having it fitted.

on to another issue cos you seem to know alot ... hey what's the go with the replacement of water pumps? some people say to change it everytime you change the timing belt. most mechanics out there say change it when it fails (even the guys at mitsu). what's your opinion on this?

I always recommend that the pump is replaced - in the magnas when you re-tension the timing belt a lot of the water pumps will break or something - which is why they should be replaced at the same time, otherwise it just ends up costing you double the labour on an already expensive job - plus if you are replacing the timing belt then the water pump would have done at least 100,000 k's anyway...