Well the past 2 months or so, my power steering pump has been making a whine sound, at idle and louder as my RPMs go up. I took it down to the dealership today to have one of their techs look at it, and he said it was burned out and all fried up, which I've never really heard of before. I went over to the parts guy and all they sell is the gasket/seal kit, which I've searched on here for, but that's all, no rebuild kit or brand new ones. The power steering works like a charm, the noise is slowly getting worse though. I also checked the fluid which looks clean. What should I do, go to a junkyard and find another one, or can anyone recommend a good new one I could possibly order online? Thanks for anyone that can help me out here!

 

Powersteering belt maybe?
They could have just been trying to get you to buy a whole new one.
after all, they are the stealership

 

Yeah as soon I mentioned it to the service guy, he said "if you ask parts, all they're gonna tell you is that you need to buy a brand new one." I figured haha.

 

Did you check to see if there was fluid in it? ehheeh

Are you sure it's coming from the pump and not an idler pulley or something?

 

Lemme check................. Yes! I found fluid! Haha!

Well that's the thing, the service dude at the dealership asked, I told him that I was replacing the timing belt as well as water pump and all of that stuff, and said that might be it. But as soon as the tech looked at the power steering pump, he said it was all burned up. So.. I'm not really 100% sure what it is. :/

 

How old is your PS fluid?

Had similiar issue on my Audi with 10 yr old PS fluid, once I swapped it out, the whine dropped by 90%, even held up this winter with the colder temps.

Do temps affect the amount of whine you are getting?
Or just RPMs?

-batsoff

 

What is involved in changing the PS fluid? Mine is getting a little erratic as well.

 

I drive a 93runner, and mine did the whiny noise for about six months before it went out. It would keep losing fluid over that six months, and i would just keep filling it up because at the time i couldn't afford to replace it. When it finally did go, i just bought a new pump and put it in myself, well couple weeks and it started doing it again so i took it to the mechanic so i could give him my retirement in a paperbag and he replaced the pump again and also there was something underneath it that was causing all the problems.. cant really remember, something like a pressure valve doo hickey: ) anywho hope this helps,

 

I checked it, and thought it was clean, also checked with a couple of the techs at work, and they said it looked fine. When the truck is first turned on, it's the worst, as it heats up, it does die down a little bit. But yes, RPMs also.

 

Yeah, my fluid seems to hold in there fine, so no leaks that I know of. How much did you spend on a new one, also where did you find it?

 

Bump. Anyone else that could give their two cents?


edit omg 200 posts yuppp!

 

Looking for answers to this too...I have an extra one at home I may try and rebuild it to see what happens.

 

ive replaced three advance auto pumps already... Try to save your stock one.

i doubt you can though, the bearings are probably the reason its whining

 

just replaced the one in my buddies and when at low rpms feels like no power steering and only when going fast can you steer, which leads me to pump is bad, fluid is brand new, belt is fine it seems as if everything is working but it makes a very loud screeching when at high rpms and trying to turn. Any ideas?

 

I just got mine through the local auto parts store, its called "Borden's" here but its basically an autozone. I paid like 120'ish for the pump but the first one i got was faulty, so on the second one they gave it to me for free and paid for the mechanic to install it.

 

Did you ever solve this problem? On my 98 4runner i started to get the same noise and it doesn't need fluid. Thanks.

 

I believe after we replaced the timing components on his 4runner we found that the ac belt tensioner pulley was toast. We removed the pulley and when you tried to spin by hand it would bind and make noise. No noise for a while now.

 

I am in the same boat. I will check my idler pulleys first. Thanks.

 

This is by no means a fix, but if you aren't losing any fluid and you know it isn't a belt or pulley...adding some Downy liquid Fabric Softener to your PS fluid can usually quiet the squeals.

Again...this isn't a fix, but it stopped my PS pump from making any noise for about a year now and haven't lost any fluid. I added about 1 TBSP at first and then I think I added just a little bit more about a week later because it was occassionally making noise. Like I said...noise free for about a year now and gave me some extra time to buffer my wallet and prepare for the impending doom whenever that day may come, bur for now it's good to go.