Power Steering Whine

[FrothyLlama]

Flushed and cleaned the Power Steering system today because I was getting a really bad whine and the steering was choppy and the reservoir was black. So I flushed it, removed the reservoir, cleaned it, reinstalled it and then flushed again and topped off with ATF and burped the system. Turned on the 4runner and still had a whine but the steering was smooth as butter.

So where should I go from here? Just let it go? Keep running it until the pump goes? It has 160k miles and I'm sure wasn't flushed many times in its life.

If the pump goes is it going to cause issues like a bad timing belt would? Or would the issue just be isolated?

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[xtremewlr]

Proper way to bleed the power steering system is to have both front wheels off the ground and crank the steering wheel lock to lock until you have no more bubbles showing up in the reservoir. Leave the cap off while you do this. It is possible you might need to add some more ATF to the system as the air in it escapes. Crank the wheel lock to lock a good 10 times or so and then check. Rinse and repeat until the whine is gone.

 

[FrothyLlama]

Proper way to bleed the power steering system is to have both front wheels off the ground and crank the steering wheel lock to lock until you have no more bubbles showing up in the reservoir. Leave the cap off while you do this. It is possible you might need to add some more ATF to the system as the air in it escapes. Crank the wheel lock to lock a good 10 times or so and then check. Rinse and repeat until the whine is gone.

Hmm, I'll rebleed it in the morning. Only did lock to lock twice and minimal bubbles came up. Hopefully that will solve the problem but I am doubtful as I have a feeling the pump has been damaged due to previous owners neglect of the fluid.

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[I dont even know]

Honestly as bad as I hate to say this, you may have a bad pump.

Not saying you do but both of my 4runners do this and it’s highly annoying and I’m just too lazy to do anything about it lol

 

[firebirdguy]

are you sure the whine is from the pump? how did you confirm that? there are a few other pulleys in the serpentine drive assembly that can make noise when bearings go bad too. also the alternator.

& if the p/s pump actually fails it wont cause any other problems with the engine, you will just loose all power assisted steering.

 

[FrothyLlama]

Honestly as bad as I hate to say this, you may have a bad pump.



Not saying you do but both of my 4runners do this and it’s highly annoying and I’m just too lazy to do anything about it lol

Yeah, and honestly I'm not too worried about it. The whine is bad but I can easily get over it.

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[FrothyLlama]

are you sure the whine is from the pump? how did you confirm that? there are a few other pulleys in the serpentine drive assembly that can make noise when bearings go bad too. also the alternator.

& if the p/s pump actually fails it wont cause any other problems with the engine, you will just loose all power assisted steering.

Definitely from the PS pump, it fluctuates according to how much I turn the wheel. When I am at almost full lock it sounds like a band saw.

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[xtremewlr]

Definitely from the PS pump, it fluctuates according to how much I turn the wheel. When I am at almost full lock it sounds like a band saw.

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It seems like it takes forever to get it to stop whining. The method I posted above is straight out of the service manual though. It just takes time and a lot of cranking lock to lock to get it to stop. You don't have to climb in and out of the driver seat every time, just do it thru the driver window.

 

[Syr4RinNC]

Theres a few other threads. Ive had a bad PS pump/ whine for a ~ 30 k miles. Its very loud when i start my engine. No other problems, than just loud

 

[FrothyLlama]

It seems like it takes forever to get it to stop whining. The method I posted above is straight out of the service manual though. It just takes time and a lot of cranking lock to lock to get it to stop. You don't have to climb in and out of the driver seat every time, just do it thru the driver window.

Did 10 times this morning, had some tiny bubbles and the level of ATF went down maybe just 2-3mm. Still have the whine, thanks for the help, but I do not think it'll go away.

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[FrothyLlama]

Theres a few other threads. Ive had a bad PS pump/ whine for a ~ 30 k miles. Its very loud when i start my engine. No other problems, than just loud

Yeah, I don't think any issues will come of it other than it someday going out. I'm not worried; I'm sure the pump has plenty of life left. It's low on the list of priorities for me.


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[xtremewlr]

Did 10 times this morning, had some tiny bubbles and the level of ATF went down maybe just 2-3mm. Still have the whine, thanks for the help, but I do not think it'll go away.

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Dude, I did lock to lock 10 times and repeated that process like 6 or 7 times. Like I said, it takes time to get it to stop.

 

[FrothyLlama]

Dude, I did lock to lock 10 times and repeated that process like 6 or 7 times. Like I said, it takes time to get it to stop.

Oh, well you didn't say you did it like 6 or 7 times lol.

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[xtremewlr]

Oh, well you didn't say you did it like 6 or 7 times lol.

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Rinse and repeat until the whine is gone. I posted that in my first post. That means keep doing it until the whine is gone.

And now that I think about it, when I did that, the whine never fully went away when it was on jackstands. Wasn't until I dropped it and drove it that the whine stopped. But you HAVE to do the bleed process a lot, not just 10 lock to locks, but multiples of that.

 

[Direwolf82]

A buddy of mine has the whine going on. Mechanic quoted a new pump, he being thrifty with his money decided to just spend some time and clean the inside of the pump and reservoir. After an hour of scrubbing with a rag on the end of a stick he pulled a bunch of jelled material out and no more whining. Might be worth looking at, not sure if it will apply to your situation or not.

 

[FrothyLlama]

A buddy of mine has the whine going on. Mechanic quoted a new pump, he being thrifty with his money decided to just spend some time and clean the inside of the pump and reservoir. After an hour of scrubbing with a rag on the end of a stick he pulled a bunch of jelled material out and no more whining. Might be worth looking at, not sure if it will apply to your situation or not.

Fairly certain that's probably the case, I've bled the system 9 times now and the last two times had no bubbles; so I'm confident that it is bled properly now.

Considering my main goal was to clean the reservoir and relatively a lot of black gunk came out, there's probably a bunch hanging out in the pump, maybe I'll get to it someday or maybe I'll just let it go.

Like I said it's low on the priority list. Thanks for the insight!

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