Hi all,
I am broke and just need to know if any of these problems is going to possibly kill me or my car or create a much more expensive problem. My steering wheel is making a noise like when you let the air out of a baloon really slowly, and is leaking power steering fluid slowly enough that I can keep it full if I check on it once a week. Also, my spedometer went out–it goes from 20-90 when I am most definitely not. And it seems to me that the engine occasionally races a little. If any of this sounds like something you could tell me about, please do. I’m afraid if I take a day off and take her to the doc, I’ll get the run around or get genuine bad news.
I just realized I forgot to mention that my car is a 1992 Honda Accord.
The onlybad news is the price for fixing everything. I would not worry about the steering wheel noise, it happens on a lot of cars. The speedometer could just be related to a bad ground. It really couldn’t be, but with electricity, you can never be completely sure. My favorite ground connection is from some metal connected to the engine to metal on the car body. It’s a fun wire to find but usually not too difficult. In this case, just checking to see that it isn’t broken or loose should be sufficient. Just to make sure that it is there, of course, since it probably has nothing to do with the problem.
You need to find a trusted independent mechanic, get estimates for work needed, and then prioritized. Use “Find a mechanic” feature on the Cartalk home page, bottom right, or ask friends where they get their cars repaired and if they are happy with the work done or car inspected for estimates.
That would be a much better approach than if you let us make some educated guesses. You don’t necessarily have to take off a day from work to get the car work done. There may be alternatives like someone dropping you off at work that day, etc. A lot depends on where the mechanic you choose is, and where your work is.
The power steering issue will only get worse and more costly as time goes on.
You run the risk of getting speeding ticket without the speedometer repair.