How to make my power steering pump overheat every time šŸ˜€ | Jeep Wrangler Forums (JL / JLU) -- Rubicon, 4xe, 392, Sahara, Sport - JLwranglerforums.com
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How to make my power steering pump overheat every time šŸ˜€

kkarnage

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Not a complaint, just a mildly interesting story šŸ˜€

So, you know how it is. Youā€™re just mozying along in your 392, minding your own business, listening to the dulcet tones of that V8 burble when some wannabe racer comes along in its lowered Civic and sits 2 inches from your bumper that has more steel in it than the entire Civic.

Twice now Iā€™ve had this happen, and the miscreant in the Civic will sit on my ass until I hit a section of road where we suddenly have two lanes. Of course by the time I get there Iā€™m annoyed, so hit that Offroad+ button, stomp on the skinny pedal, and release all 470 glorious ponies. Just to get some space between me and the idiot on my ass, of course.

And of course, every damn time, the Civic driver will try and race me. Thing is, this is a ~2 mile uphill section of road, relatively steep, with a few sweeping bends, so the Civicā€™s 4-pot just isnā€™t going to be able to pass. Iā€™ll admit I toyed with it a few times and let it almost catch up, but for the most part had my foot all the way in the corner.

The power steering pump overheating warning came on about half way up the hill, both times. No discernible lack of steering assistance though. After the first time I actually cut out a chunk of the inner liner on the passenger side to aide airflow, but it still overheated the second time (recovered a lot faster though).

I think whatā€™s happening here is a combination of a few things:
1. When all 470 ponies are being fed to the drivetrain, the natural tendency is for the steering to mostly center (allowing for some skew from the center-offset diff of course), and so on a road with swooping curves, the steering is constantly fighting this tendency;
2. Iā€™m running 37ā€™s, which probably put even more strain on the steering, making that pump work even harder;
3. That beast under the hood is suddenly generating a metric f-ton of extra heat.

Anyway, Iā€™m not too concerned. Definitely edge cases, and Iā€™ve never seen it overheat on the trail, even in 100Āŗ weather. Iā€™ve seen someone posting that they installed a fan in front of the pump which has helped them, and am toying with the idea, but Iā€™m not yet convinced itā€™s worth the effort just for the rare occasion I need to deal with some idiot who overestimates their vehicleā€™s ability to stop.
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jludave

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Iā€™m not yet convinced itā€™s worth the effort just for the rare occasion I need to deal with some idiot who overestimates their vehicleā€™s ability to stop.
How about dealing with it by not racing on public roads?
 
 



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