Steering Pump Issues

[Mikku]

So last weekend I managed to fix the infamous power steering whine that was annoying the hell out of me, and probably my neighbours, especially on cold, early morning start-ups! The problem was indeed the O-ring, which was one of the older style, black ones rather than the salmon-coloured ones that Subaru now uses. It wasn’t broken but was hard, so I guess was allowing air into the system because the engine is now a lot quieter. Unfortunately, the steering now shudders at very low turning speed, which it never did before. After fitting the O-ring, I tried to bleed the system by turning the steering wheel from lock to lock. The foaming head on the brake fluid did reduce but didn’t completely disappear despite turning the wheel back and forth about ten times. I was worried about damaging something, especially as the car was on the ground, so I stopped at that point but am now wondering if I should have kept going. The upper reservoir return hose was also quite hard and I’m not sure when the brake fluid was last changed, so replacing those two are now on my jobs-to-do list. Apart from that, there are no fluid leaks that I can see and everything looks nice and dry down below. Should I be looking for or checking anything else? Thanks in advance for any comments, ideas or suggestions.

[Mikku]

For brake fluid, read steering rack fluid!! I really should read my posts more carefully before pressing the submit button! 🙄

[Jay762]

On 3/5/2022 at 8:32 AM, Mikku said:

For brake fluid, read steering rack fluid!! I really should read my posts more carefully before pressing the submit button! 🙄

😁 - soooo guilty of this

 

if you are looking at replacing the fluid I would check for leaks on the rack itself, there are rubber o rings in each of the connections - They may well be as hard as the one you previously replaced

[Mikku]

Thanks J! 👍