Rep Power: 0

Gentlemen,

The order in how this happened is very strange. I have a 2000 civic. I wanted to add some Blue devil transmission additive but needed to drain some fluid first. I thought I had the right plug but what I loosened was another plug with a spring and rubber washers behind that. Realizing I had the wrong plug, I reinstalled it. I decided to remove some from the top of the transmission which I allowed some to bleed out. all in all, the Blue Devil did nothing for the bump i get when accelerating but here lie the issue, immediately, the steering became stiff and choppy around curves.

its an automatic
power steering is full
tires seem fine,
Tranny was over filled, but lowered it to correct level.

Is it possible I did something to cause this??? or perhaps a strange coincidence and hence another issue to deal with.

I would appreciate some advice if you could.

Thanks!

 
Rep Power: 518

Post a few pictures of whatever you mistakenly removed so we can see what is might be and where it is on the car.

Did you get it all the way out? Did you get all the pieces reinstalled correctly?

 
Rep Power: 0

I will be getting under there tomorrow. Had to resolve a over heating issue. Thanks for responding though.

 
Rep Power: 208

Pics please.

I am blindly guessing that you messed with the steering rack, do you have power steering?

 
Rep Power: 0

Hey Mad Dog,

Just got done changing tranny fluid and oil and yes you are right, it is on the rack. Some one else had told me it was the drain for it?

So, when I pulled that off, it had a spring behind it which was about 3/4 in diameter and about an inch long. And now the question is, upon reinstalling that nut, does the spring need to be set a certain way?

I had not removed the rubber washer deeper inside. Also, at that time, I had the car jacked up high on that side so if that is a drain of some sort, nothing had come out.

 
Rep Power: 0

Yes, it has power steering.

 
Rep Power: 518

There is no drainplug on a steering rack.

The part you removed, did it take a wrench about 2 inches wide?

Whaaars ur picz uv it??

 
Rep Power: 0

I'm terrible with down loading pics takes me forever to do. No it didn't take a big wrench it was more like 9/16. or 5/8 nut however it was fastened on what someone would think is a large washer but really is one piece. I know what your refering too and it wasn't that.(I didn't touch the adjuster). Been googling this like crazy. My apologies.

 
Rep Power: 208

That might have been the adjustment for the power steering and if you tightened it down then it's too tight. It's supposed to be right before tension gets tight.

 
Rep Power: 0

That was it! and boy did I have it tight. I may have to adjust it a bit more snug but will know for sure when I drive to work this afternoon. I really appreciate your help Mad Dog and this site as a resource for the mechanically incompetent such as myself.

 
Rep Power: 208

Glad to see you got it fixed, and it wasn't something more serious.