If power steering fails, can i still steer car?

[jobin]

My old clunker's power steering unit is failing, so says the mechanic.  But a replacement will be too costly, 25000 baht.  So i'm inclined to let it fail and start steering the old fashioned way, using arm muscle to turn the wheel.

Am i missing some vital piece of information here?  Or is the consensus 'sure, let it fail, no harm or danger'?

[Strange]

Yeah you can drive it without power steering but it will be REAL hard to turn when parked or trying to do a real slow 3-point, such as parking anywhere in Thailand. Gotta remember that it would be a crazy bad safety issue if the power steering "Went Out" and you couldn't steer. Its a safety factor built into the system. 

 

Once you are moving at speed you will likely not notice. 

 

The mechanics here try on a lot of stuff trying to convince people that they need work they don't need. It amazes me that people buy into it. 

 

If you didn't notice that the unit was failing until the mechanic pointed it out, then likely you don't need the repair. Especially a clunker. 

 

And 25k for any power steering part on an old clunker is REAL expensive. What kind of vehicle is it? 

[tifino]

assuming it is conventional, then, as Strange has mentioned, yes but it will be more challenging (it is power-assisted)

 

However for somebody else, with some particular modern vehicles - the steering may be electrical, and that's another story...

[Coremouse]

Just ripped steering pump outta my car, looped oil; added breather; and drained lot of ATF oil out. like Mr.Strange already mentioned, high speed easy, parking speed need significant muscle. If pump on with full oil( like, just cut the belt ) I guess when parking it'll resists like bull. 

[madmax2]

If the vehicle is old why not buy a good secondhand PS unit and save a lot of money

plenty of late model wrecks around and their PS units can probably be fitted

[tifino]

1 minute ago, madmax2 said:

If the vehicle is old why not buy a good secondhand PS unit and save a lot of money

plenty of late model wrecks around and their PS units can probably be fitted

 

yeah I've done that before - but in my case the sytem wasn't for the exact model, so the ongoing maintenance / topup procedures weren't the same for the maint manual for my car, and air got into the sytem when opening the refill cap at the wrong time, to check levels...

 

just need to be aware of subtle differences...