So when I bought the truck last year at the beginning of winter the power steering would whine when it was cold. Then it started randomly doing it this summer, mostly at stoplights after standing on the brakes, to not kill the Prius driver in stuck behind who locked their brakes up 30 yds from an interesection the moment it turned yellow.

Now it's pretty suddenly taken a turn for the worse. It's constant, annoying, probably damaging, and loud enough that people in the cars on my left look at me in annoyance, as opposed to before when it was just people on my right upset about my gross sounding exhaust.

It's only been about 15 miles of constant, but I'm not expecting it to magically improve. But then I hoped on an airplane to leave the comfortably cool state of Minnesota for the smoldering jungle sweat of South Texas. It's probably not actually that hot here, if your from here, but sure boiled my thick northern blood.

Any who, I'm catching an early flight home tomorrow, and I'll have exactly one (tired) day off to fix this thing and then I need to be swinging a hammer for ten-jamins again.

So I'm my spare time reading I've come to the conclusion that it could be a dying pump. The dealer I bought it from claimed to have exchanged the power steering fluid before I bought the truck in which case they probably put power steering fluid in and after 15,000 miles it's ready to bite the dust.

The glimmer of hope here is that they claimed to have flushed the brake system also, but I've never seen good brake fluid that was black. (it's no longer black)

So if that's the case maybe I have a chafed line I can replace, flush the system and be on my Merry way?

So, my plan of attack;
Inspect the thing, about 6 months to late.
If the fluid level is okay. Flush out the possible bad and in with some shiny red new atf.

If level is not okay find leak, repair, and flush with shiny new atf.

Does this plan sound reasonable? Is there any reason i should jump straight to replacing the pump?

Sorry for the wordy post, it seems like the less sleep I get the more useless words I cram in these things.

Thanks FTE!

 

Just replaced my p/s pump hose today. With low/no fluid, it was whining away, bad. While flushing and following the steps, the sound diminished....so, I'd flush her first..merconV

 

when the one in old green had starting whining a little, several years ago, took a little STP (the honey looking stuff) and put in there. it has been silent since.

 

i had to replace my pump when i got my truck about 2 years ago (not a bad process) but I spent the money to flush the lines with mobil1 synthetic and top off the new pump.

 

I flushed the system yesterday with full syn atf. The steering is a little easier and the whine is better, but not gone. It's just barely audible now. Liveable, as long as it doesn't fail and leave me without brakes and steering in traffic.

So if it is going to fail is it going to warn me again? Or is there a chance it will just let go? I don't like messing with the things that keep me safe, straight, and stopping.

 

A few years back there was a TSB for this issue for 99-2000 model year trucks. There was a revised PS line between the P/S pump and the hydro booster. YC3Z-3A717-AA. Maybe this could help. Also flush the system with good quality synthetic ATF fluid.

 

Thanks for the info on the TSB. Not sure if it applies though my truck is an '02. So maybe it came with the fancy line?

Whine is starting to get loud again already so I'm thinking the pump might be damaged. Unless there is a better way to bleed it than just turning the wheels and pumping the brakes for 30 min?

 

Both wheels off the ground and engine off ?

You will never get the whine to disappear completely until you do this.

 

I suppose you could check the hose for the updated part # before changing out the pump. that would be the route I would take.

 

tSB was for 99/00 trucks. By 02 all the hoses would be the new larger diameter.

 

I've "fixed" about a dozen of these with about a pint of Lucas P/S additive. Mine was unbearable when I first put the 35s on it. Sucked some of the fluid out and replaced it with the Lucas. That was 11 years ago. No issues since. I hate the "mechanic in a can" mentality, but it works.

 

I went through a high pressure hose replacement on my F250 back in the spring, and here is a link to the thread for how I got rid of the whining immediately after starting up on the new hose. Note that I did not do a formal flush, and just replaced the fluid which was lost when the original hose blew out. I also have never used anything except full synthetic ATF in my PS system. At this point, my 288K mile PS pump continues to run dead quiet.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ll-theory.html

 

I read through F250's link and basically agree with what he did to bleed/purge the system except I did it with front end on jack stands in the driveway. Mine needed a pump when I saved the truck but admittedly it was a year before I replaced it. When i did, i put it on stands and left the return hose disconnected. Flushed all of the old fluid out. Reconnected the return line and started the back and forth with the wheel until i felt that I had all the air bled from the system. Over a year later I don't have any problems. I didn't know about the 99/00 hose TSB. I have a 2000 so I may need to look at that.

 

I think it should work either way -- wheels on the ground or off. What I'm NOT sure of, though, is whether or not you'll feel the "release" associated with the air bubbles purging out of the hydraulic lines if the wheels are not on the ground. I'll freely admit that what I'm saying is pure speculation on my part based on thinking that with the wheels on the ground there is more pressure demand on the system. Again, though... Pure speculation.

Regardless, you don't have to feel anything at all, as long as the air gets purged completely.

 

So to clarify when I'm trying to bleed the air out of the system; do I hold the brake peddle down the entire time I'm turning the wheel back and forth?

Also thanks F250 for linking to your thread, I read it in June when you posted it and looked around for it before flushing my system but couldn't find it. So many thanks for sending it right to me.