Power Steering Noise Help (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

batthewmrown

SILVER Star
Joined
Apr 24, 2011
Threads
30
Messages
506
Location
Denver
Background: Just replaced old leaking pump with new OEM pump. Flushed fluid through system ~10 times to remove air. Turned pump pulley by hand and kept fluid topped off so as to not run it dry by starting for a few seconds like the manual says. There’s no way in hell there’s air in the system.

Last night, I took it for a turning-heavy drive. It made that awful groan for a bit but then went away after 10 minutes or so. Noise is back this morning. Is this just because it’s cold or what?
 
Did you by chance jack up the truck and cycle the steering wheel back and forth several times with the engine off? That is the FSM trick on 80-series LCs and not a bad idea on many other vehicles (with the caveat that some vehicles will puke fluid all over the ground out of the reservoir when you do this). Might be worth one more try. And my brand new OEM 80 series pump was not only noisy, it began to lose boost after a year or so. I dumped in some PS rejuvenation product (thick PS fluid) and that pretty much cured both problems.
 
Did you by chance jack up the truck and cycle the steering wheel back and forth several times with the engine off? That is the FSM trick on 80-series LCs and not a bad idea on many other vehicles (with the caveat that some vehicles will puke fluid all over the ground out of the reservoir when you do this). Might be worth one more try. And my brand new OEM 80 series pump was not only noisy, it began to lose boost after a year or so. I dumped in some PS rejuvenation product (thick PS fluid) and that pretty much cured both problems.
No, not with the engine off. Would leaving the cap off/on the reservoir make any difference?
 
^^^ This


As I recall I did this with the cap off so that I could add fluid as necessary. My suggestion is to rotate the steering wheel 20-30 times...and very slowly.
 
If ATF was used, there's still air in it. If power steering fluid was used, that's the problem.
Pump is cavitating on micro bubbles it churned up.
To verify that air is causing the groaning, idle engine & crank steering wheel back & forth until the groaning begins. Then quickly use a turkey baster and suck out a little fluid from the reservoir while the engine is still idling and squirt it in a clear glass jar.
If there's tiny bubbles in the fluid — that's the problem.

Once the pump starts churning micro bubbles, they'll keep circulating. Engine has to be turned off for quite a while to allow them to coalesce into bigger bubbles.
 
Last edited:
My 62’s PS was groaning a bunch after replacing the pump with a cityracer unit. I tried everything mentioned.

When the system was open again to replace the pressure line I attached a big socket to my drill and spun the pump pulley (with no belt attached) to run the fluid. Had the return line dumping into a bucket until all was clean. You have lots of control standing at the pump, spinning it just enough to circulate and refilling with fresh fluid...just don’t let it suck air!

This method solved a lot of the PS noise I had.
Still plan to rebuild my original to compare its function to the aftermarket pump, and have a solid spare.
 
@OSS Not PS fluid, ATF. I checked the state of the fluid after I got home this afternoon and no bubbles or signs of cavitation, but I did notice the fluid was lower than it was when I filled it yesterday. The ambient temperature had warmed quite a bit and I took a longer route home and did a few locked u-turns and by the time I was home, it was quiet when I turned and felt great.

I’m gonna put it up on stands here shortly and see if that helps.
 
@Skniper thats basically what I did, I was just turning the pulley by hand. I thought that that was essentially the same as starting it for a second like the FSM said and it let me make sure the reservoir never went dry.
 
Good on ya!

I will be at SAS5 and will take you up on a beverage.👍
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom