I was driving my evo yesterday and out of the blue my power steering started whining louder than usual (right after making a u-turn)

It also grabbed a little so after I got to my friends place I popped the hood.

To my surprise the piping that goes up from the ac compressor to a rubber hose was frozen solid. The second pipe following the rubber hosing was also frozen. I thought maybe it was the pulley from the ac compressor acting up but then I remembered the power steering.

So I let it sit over night and the next day my power steering is out!

But only at a full stop if you tap the throttle it releases and begins working as long as the throttle is pressed (obviously has to be a pulley issue) But I popped the hood and all the pulleys appear to be spinning freely it hard to tell of course.

Then I cut my ac on and white smoke blew out of my vents.

My question is what the heck is going on? and my power steering seems to be working hard and whining loud (checked the fluid its ok)

Im taking it in tomorrow but I'm worried and would like to know if anyone else had this happen also Im not in my area for awhile so I cant exactly trust local car mechanics that I dont know so I would like to have a general idea of whats going on without getting screwed.

p.s. ac still blows cold

 

You froze up your evaporator.

Likely low on refrigerant by 100g or so if I were to bet, but an obstruction in the system could cause it too.
Essentially the system over cools, your evaporator does it's best impression of a block of ice, the lines freeze putting a strain on the compressor, compressor locks and affects steering pump operation.
Let the system thaw a moment and turn the air on high and you get heavy moisture (white smoke) blowing at you just like when you open a freezer door that needs defrosting.

Get the pressures checked. It's probably just (15-30%) low.

 

Thanks Ill be sure to do that. My a/c compressor is not shot though right? is there a chance it is, I drove a fair amount with it in this condition today.

 

If it is what we suspect and it is just a discharge condition, it can damage the compressor but it is unlikely you did with this one event/period today.
If you were constantly freezing the core up and getting brrrrrt sounds from the compressor etc for months, that's when shiat gets real.

 

One last question what causes this? Why would it randomly out of the blue be low? I just dont want this to be a recurring thing

 

entropy