Recently my 240 has been making a bad high pitched humming noise. It also has been leaking some liquid, thought it may have been transmission but the fluid was not red. My friend (owner of a sweet 300z) heard the noise and told me i may have a leak in my power steering hose. I took a look and sure enough it looks like i am going to replace the hose.

Has anyone else experienced this?

PS: the fluid was dark brown and smelled really nasty, like road kill.

 

happened in my friends 300, check your belts too because his went right after he had that problem..
Ron

 

You'd probably get more answers in the general forum.

 

PS fluid is usually close in color to brake fluid - kind of golden, and shouldn't smell.

The foulest smelling fluid I have ever run across was auto tranny fluid from an S12 with a bad tranny. The stuff was all burnt smelling, dark in color, and just horrible stuff. I almost want to puke just thinking about it now.

But the noises you're describing are generally consistent with ps system troubles. What is the fluid level in your ps reservoir?

-Justin

 

Does the sound occur when you turn the wheel? If so you might want to do what Justin said and check you resevoir, you could be low. My car did the same thing.

 

It usually only makes the noise when hitting the accelerater. It is a very high huming noise. The power steering hose in constantly moist. I do not want to take it in. It will cost too much $, the dealership alone charges 74$ per hour. I think i will take it in to just figure out what the problem is and see if i can fix it myself

 

The last time I checked, the high pressure hose from Courtesy Nissan was ~$200.

So I put it off, and just kept adding fluid.... it may have been really low a couple of times. Anyway, now my fluid has a horrible smell like burnt tranny fluid and is darker than it should be. Although I still do have power steering and my fluid level doesn;t seem to be dropping so quickly.

I'm going to have to fix that this year if I want to autocross - I think leaking fluids will keep me from passing tech. I think that would be embarassing especially since I've known about the problem for years now.

-Justin

 

I had the same problem on my 89. I just took the power steering off. Quick fix if you don't really care.

 

ya, i was going to use my income tax to fix it but i do not want to pay no $200. Man thats a lot of money, but the high pitched noise is so embarassing and irratating.