does napa or autozone do check engine light diagnostics?

[Hank Kingsley]

Loose belt I'd say. Any squealing?

 

[757Hokie83]

no squealing

 

[outofyourmind]

I'm thinking that the computer doesn't interact with the power steering pump.
I guess it could, but have never had a vehicle that it did.


Did you check the fluid level in the power steering pump???
If it's ok, try that maneuver in a parking lot. Crank steer it all the way over to the same side and try to duplicate the problem.

 

[757Hokie83]

fluid is a little lower than ideal, but not significantly low...i guess tomorrow morning i'll flush the fluid and add new, hopefully will be the end of it

 

[JohnRandle]

dont know if this has anything to do with the check engine light or not, but yesterday afternoon, was leaving work pulled a U turn, and after that had no power steering...after muscling it to the side of the road, i parked turned it off, and back on, and all seems fine again

fluid is a little lower than ideal, but not significantly low...i guess tomorrow morning i'll flush the fluid and add new, hopefully will be the end of it

I'm guessing you have a serpentine belt on the vehicle?
It might be slipping a bit. It's not typical of a little low power steering reservoir to cause power steering to go completely out. But a belt slipping could cause that, and low amperage from alternator, high coolant temps...all things that might throw up a code.

And to answer your original question, most places will let you take the code reader out to the parking lot for free, you may need to leave them your drivers license while you use it.

 

[4down20]

When I lived in the bay area, the local stores would NOT read the codes. They said it was against the law for them to do so. I was like WTF? I had to take it to a special smog place that could fix the car to get my codes read. Thankfully they read them and didn't charge me, although they quoted me like $500 for a fix, when the only problem was a vacuum line had come undone.

In Tennessee, every part store will read codes for free. Autozone, Advance, Oreillys etc. They will say they can't reset them for you, because of legal issues. They will do it for you with a bit of wink wink if you are cool, but they would call you a liar if you tried to say they did it.

 

[ckhokie]

fluid is a little lower than ideal, but not significantly low...i guess tomorrow morning i'll flush the fluid and add new, hopefully will be the end of it

If your power steering fluid is low, you'll hear a pretty noticeable (loud) squeal when you go side to side with the wheel. I obviously recommend checking while parked, not moving.