Anyone know what could be making my power steering pump whine when I cut the wheel hard? It doesn't do it unless I'm barley moving (like while parking) or when I'm not moving at all. It has plenty of fluid in it. But today it did it while in a parking lot trying to get situated in a space...it just got hard as heck to turn the wheel and it whined like a champ. Any thoughts?

 

It's going bad. I'd try changing the fluid though. Is it only doing it at full lock? If so thats normal. If not I'd guess it's probably on it's way out.

 

Yeah, it only whines at full lock...but today it seemed louder than usual. I'm gonna drain it and throw in some fresh fluid.

 

Don't worry about it till it goes. They whine anyway. My pump just went a month ago when I was offroad'n. Something seized in my pump and the serpentine belt said... "F U" and it sheared the shaft off inside the pump. Truck was still driveable to the carwash . I swap'd it out with a junkyard pump that is whining like crazy right now. Sounds like a supercharger or something under there. It's so bad that i can hear it over my open air cleaner. It definatly will whine at full lock no matter what. Howeverif she has some whine too it when your driving, run it till it dies. Pump is like 60 ish, need a pully puller, and a torque wrench and you'll be set. I took my original pully, pump, and bracket off as one piece. Swap'din the new pump. torqued it to the bracket, and pressed the pully. Right now its sitting in the basementuntil I get back home again in March. The junkyard pump swap'd in, in less than 15 minutes. I'm gonna use the junkyard pump to pump all that old fluid out before I put the new one in. Pefect time for a flush.

 

Thanks for the tip... I guess I could just borrow the pulley puller and torque wrench from Autozone, right? I think they still do that...The only thing that worried me was not knowing how the pump would act if it went out. I've had past experiences with alternators going out, locking up, and shredding the belt. That's not gonna happen with this is it?

 

Well my shaft sheared off so the belt still turned etc. I'd have to say the only way the pump will fail is from the inside. If something binds up when it fails, that could be bad. In my case it wasn't a big issue because it sheared perfectly and just floated there. The serpentine belt still spun and everything. If your pump goes, your steering will stiffen up extremely. You will know when it happens Quite honestly it is not that big of a deal. The faster you drive, the easier to turn the wheel. You'll be fine.

 

When my pump went out I could barely turn the vehicle it was so hard to turn. Just be aware that it's going to be a pita to turn.

 

I may just do a little preventative maintenance and replace it...it's pretty cheap. Just need to get the tools...

 

It's normal for it to wine a little at full lock. Just thought I'd point that out. Yours may be doing it more than normal but I just wanted to make sure you knew it was normal for it to do it some.