Failure of Power Steering Gears of the Heavy-Duty Trucking: A Tribological Investigation

A power steering system helps the heavy-duty operator move the vehicle easily with the hydraulic pump that provides the fluid pressure and facilitating adequate operation. Some failures in the power steering system are due to external and internal factors that can reduce its service life. The external factors could be identified by ocular inspection but normally, due to internal failures, it is necessary to use a hydraulic pressure flow meter. However, this device makes it impossible to detect failures caused by the selected lubricant. This work aims to investigate the causes of power steering system seizure by using the tribological wear examination process and the lubricant characterization under some actual operation conditions. The lubricant characterization was carried out in a four balls tester using fresh and used samples of a re-refined oil based ATF, SAE 15 W40 and synthetic SAE 5 W30 oils at two temperatures. In general, the results showed an unsteady friction profile with regards to re-refined ATF oil at both temperatures tested. In all cases, the friction and wear of the synthetic and the engine oil showed good performance.