Frozen flaps

Mutton_Geoff

If I wanted to add innuendo, I would have mentioned the piece on the end of the cable 

silvercar

Try pushing the flap inwards, towards the car, slightly. It should break the ice around the flap and may make opening it easier.

ontheroad1970

I was about to say, best way to avoid them is to wear thermal underwear, but that would just be too  much innuendo...

B0bbyEwing

No such bother. Got the fuel in before the drive & was there & back on a tank with 1/4 to spare. 

New thing now though. Steering is moaning & groaning in a morning. I'm hoping it's just the cold. That said, there is juice around the power steering reservoir now & it's certainly fresh, though the level appears to be at maximum.

Car_54

Power steering reservoir? What car is this?

Goudy

If it's spitting fluid out of the reservoir cap, bubbling up and groaning yet the ressie appears full, it's likely it's sucking in air somewhere.

B0bbyEwing

Car_54 said:

Power steering reservoir? What car is this?

Are you trying to pull me on a technicality? 
I hope I'm wrong when I wonder if you're hanging on me not including the word fluid?

I'm no mechanic or car expert so if that's the case, shoot me.

Goudy said:

If it's spitting fluid out of the reservoir cap, bubbling up and groaning yet the ressie appears full, it's likely it's sucking in air somewhere.

Oh joy of joys. Honestly, as each month goes by I get more & more tempted to move this car on.

I suspect it's coming out of the cap area & there's not some kind of pinhole on the reservoir itself, so assuming it's the cap, should it even be coming out of there, sucking air or not? As in, shouldn't it be well sealed?

I had a look at the rubber O ring seal on it. Seems fine to me but then "to me" is nothing to go by. Unless it's snapped in two then it's going to look right to me but could look like it's long since needed replacing to a mechanic with knowledge.

Goudy

Yes if it's spitting through the pin hole, air is getting into the system.

It's a hydraulic system, the pump pressurizes the fluid to the steering rack where it helps push the rack back and forth.
Then the fluid returns under less pressure back to the reservoir.

One side is high pressure and one is lower pressure and it's not a completely sealed system,  it doesn't need to be as long as there's enough fluid in the reservoir for the pump to draw on.

If say after you've have the hydraulics apart, air is in the system so you have to bleed the air out of the system.
You do this by turning the steering back and forth to "burp" the air out the top of the reservoir.
Once that is done the system should run smoothly, pulling fluid from the reservoir and returning it back.

If you open the cap off the reservoir with the engine running, you should just see the fluid churning if all is ok.


If there is air entering the system, it's continually "burping" the air out. This tends to spit the fluid out the top of the reservoir.
Air is also compressible, so you will loose some assistence in the steering so might feel notchy and it will generally groan and moan as the air passes through.

Now if you take the top off the resevoir (carefully) with the engine running, the fluid tends to erupt and spit as it continually trying to spit the air out.

It it does this, it usually the pump that's at fault, but without seeing it with my own eyes, it's difficult to tell.

B0bbyEwing

Bit more info...

Well I started it up today as I took it to go somewhere & planned on stopping off at our mechanic on the way. First thing I noticed was it did not whine and moan and groan when I went to set off from my drive which says to me that when it did it the other day it was because it was fricken freezing. Not that today is warm, but it is compared to the other day.

Stopped off at the mechanic who had a bit of a heart attack as he thought I was asking him to overhaul the engine.

Basically my car has the 12 O'clock notch/clunk. I'm sure you know what that is Goudy as you've owned one before but for anyone else & before anyone starts coming in talking about the time, the 12 O'clock notch/clunk is when if i turn the steering either side of dead straight, it will hit a notch/clunk (which gets less noticeable the warmer the car gets / longer it's been running). Apparently this is semi-common on this age Mondeo.

So the mechanic, who's nearing retirement, doesn't want big jobs & he suspects it's a new steering rack to sort that fully. I told him no it wont be because if it ever is then the car is gone - but that's what he initially thought I was asking him to do.

As he inspects the reservoir, he comments that the level is actually a little high. Says it's about 1/4inch above maximum. 
Now whether that's because I'd just driven 4-5 mile to get to his or not, I don't know if that's how it goes.

He said he wouldn't worry about it really, so I left it. 

Not sure if this could cause the weeping or not but I'm just saying he commented that the level was a little high.