I need a little guidance, just changed the power steering pump. Changed fluid with Honda fluid, no leaks everything was fine after the change. I was driving and the steering became hard almost to the point you couldn't steer any longer then went back to normal. At first I though it might have gotten air bound for a minute but it keeps happening. Not sure what could be causing this. Fluid is full and clean, no leaks, pump is not whining. Any thoughts would be great. Thanks Mike

 

Sounds like air in the system

 

Was the pump new, rebuilt or from a junk yard or eBay?

 

It was a new pump.

 

I’m with the previous suggestion of air in the system. You can usually work it out by turning the steering wheel lock to lock and toppig off the reseroir as you do so. There is a Honda Accord procedure at OS bleeding. Note the procedure has you jacking up the front end, That really isn’t necessary; it is done to avoid getting isolated wear spots on the tires and to make it easy to turn the steering wheel. When I’ve done the procedure, I just drive over a section of newspaper and then the steering wheel turns easily.

 

Thank you for the feedback, I have been reading that there was an issue with a or multiple O rings. Is it on the pressure side or the return side? I went for a ride with the car and drove about 30 miles and everything was fine, then it happened again with the hard steering. I am starting to believe it must be getting air in the system from somewhere hence the "O" ring question. Any insight would be helpful, thanks again for everyone's time.

 

Replacing the hose o-rings is relatively easy and you likely can find new o-rings at Advance, Autozone or a NAPA store. A good video, although not for your car, can be found at . Make sure you don’t get any of the PS fluid on exterior painted surfaces.

 

Thanks for that, I guess my roundabout question was do you think that this could be the issue? Also do you or anybody know where it could be drawing in air? Pressure side or return?

 

What was the original problem with the previous pump, did you have this same problem or did you replace the pump for another reason? If you didn't have the intermittent hard steering with the original pump then the new pump has to be suspect. There's a pressure valve in the PS pump and I'm wondering if it may be sticking at times and lowering the pump output pressure. Air in the system could be the problem too but you should see bubbles in the PS fluid reservoir and the pump will whine if air is getting into the system.

 

The original problem was the unit was whining and after further inspection, I could hear that the main bearing was making a grinding noise. I never had an issue with the steering before I changed the pump. That is why I was asking about the "O" rings. I just replaced the "O" rings 5 minutes ago and didn't get 2 miles down the road and it happened again. I was thinking that it might be a bad pump when I saw this post. I going to get another one and see if that solves the issue unless someone has something else I can try. Again thanks to the few members who help me out with the issue.

 

Sure is sounding like the new pump is the problem. Please let us know what you find out, I don't have any other suggestion other than trying another pump or taking apart the new pump but that's not what I would really recommend doing. It doesn't sound like air is the system is the problem. Hopefully you can exchange the pump for another one, this isn't an installation problem.

 

Thanks again for the input on this issue, I have ordered a new pump and will give an update once it arrives and is installed.

 

Pump was replaced once again with another new one and the issue has been resolved. Thanks to the few members that helped out.