Steering whine

[Nelsonmd]

I just finished putting my new carpet in, and the first time I drive it, I am getting a whine from the power steering while I am turning. I opened the PS reservoir and was surprised to see bubbles. I am not sure I would call it foam, but I didn't think the ATF would form bubbles like that.

Anyway, I did recently replace the belts, but if it was the pulley bearing, I assume it would always make noise since it is always turning. The pump is original and very rusty, but it hasn't had any problems before other than the occasional hard first turn.

So any ideas what is wrong with it? Should I just replace the ATF in the PS system, or do you think the pump is failing?

If I replace the pump, any thoughts about aftermarket? Rock auto has them for under $100, and they are $329 for OEM. I have a spare reservoir, so I don't need that.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Doc2012]

Google is our friend.

Power steering whine. - TTORA Forum

 

[Hacker]

Mine started to whine a while back and I was initially thinking was going to mean replacing the pump. After a little reading here, I saw that the PS fluid was filthy (it hadn't been changed in over 40K that I've owned it, no idea what the previous owner did).

I replaced all the fluid with fresh red ATF/Dexron III, and the whine went away immediately and hasn't returned. Pretty inexpensive fix.

If it ever does, I'm going to do the fan-blade-flip like in that TTORA link.

 

[Nelsonmd]

Google is our friend.

Power steering whine. - TTORA Forum

Good link, thanks. And yeah, I didn't do alot of googling before posting. I did search here and not find much.

 

[the great him]

I'm on my phone so I didn't open that link, but I had this happen a year or so.ago, and I tried flushing the system several times with no luck. I ended up replacing it with a low mileage one from a wrecking yard. It solved the problem. But I also had no power steering in my experience, from a snow wheeling trip... If you still have power steering your pump might not be dead yet, but it is all rusty and my "new" pump was only like $40 and only tool like 30min to swap out...