Driving through puddles: power steering/battery guage problems?

[95silver]

I live in Florida so it rains alot. Whenever I go through puddles, my power steering goes out for a few seconds and the wheel is really hard to turn. Also the batter guage drops to the red zone and stays for 5-15 seconds. What would cause this to happen? Loose wires, leaking fluids, bad parts?

[Everglades W68]

What size of puddles are you talking about? It is normal for any car to briefly lose power steering when going through deep water.

[bu-bye]

Could be the power steering pulley is slipping when it gets really wet. A new belt might help.

[MustangEater8251]

jsut your belt, my neighborhood at my parents place in south florida floods bad. A new belt may help and it might not. jsut becareful with it.

I rember loosing pwoer steerig going sideways though a mud filled field in my 85 camaro, I almost got it stuck. [img]smile.gif[/img] but managed to make it through.

[CARdiac]

check you autotensioner...your belt may be loose. Also the belts you get at Pep Boys and stuff are good...but I hate to admit it, the GM belt is better for a wet climate. It has cross cuts not just longitudinal grooves...allow water to drain.

[95silver]

The puddles are not deep at all. Just normal everyday rain puddles. The belt is in good shape(from Pep Boys ;) ) but has squeeked/squeeled it's *** off all summer when it rains. After tons of silicone spray on the belt and pulleys, it will still squeel like a stuck pig the next day . Well I finally found out recently it's not the belt that makes the noise, its the tensioner pulley. When the squeeking noise is on, I just spray the belt tensioner pulley and it stops. Do I need a new one? But the power steering thing could still be belt related :( . What to do ?

[MustangEater8251]

how old is your belt?

flip it over in your hand do you see any cracks in it?

if belt dressing is working maybe its jstu a bad belt.

But I think 3.8L are known to have tensionor problems.

[95silver]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by MustangEater8251:

But I think 3.8L are known to have tensionor problems.<hr></blockquote>
It's a 3.4L
;)

[93v6firebird]

this happened on my car a couple of times, then it happened again when my surge tank blew a bunch of excess water out of it... I think its water getting up on that postive terminal pole above the surge tank on the wheel well and shorting things out!

[vtv6firebird]

Its not the water shorting things out. The voltage level of cars is too low to make a difference. Not enough current can flow through water at 12 volts. Your probelm is either your belt tension, bad pulley, or a bad belt. When water gets on the belt it just starts slipping on the items that pull the most on the belt(the power steering pump, and the alternator). I would first start by taking your belt off and turning all the pulleys you can by hand, feel for looseness, or grinding in the bearings, check the condition of the pulleys to, could be physical damage. Change the belt, this may solve your problems right there.

[ August 14, 2002: Message edited by: vtv6firebird ]</p>