Well my power steering stopped working today. (for the most part) when getting off the freeway I noticed the steering wheel was very stiff and I had to really muscle through some sharper turns. I parked it and played with the steering wheel a little and it would make a slight grinding noise when turned. When i had a friend turn the wheel so i could listen for where it waseemed to be in the general vicinity of the pump or maybe just to the right of it. (towards the driver's side) My thoughts are this may be a pump issue but i'm also concerned it may be a steering rack issue. Any way to tell which it may be, shy of bringing it to a mechanic???

TexasHonda, any thoughts?

 

It's probably only the bearing in front of the pulley, repairable but I had a new unit installed and I noticed the mechs put some kind of grease on that same bearing, so that tells me it must dry out over time and fail. I had previously gone through three pumps, one made noise during start-up only and the others just failed completey. After getting the new one have had no more problems but let me tell you it was expensive for something so simple just couldn't do this one myself I guess the tension also has to be right.

 

I would agree the pump is more likely. It should be cheap enough if you go for a used part. Confirm the pump is not pumping by looking into the reservoir and noting if any fluid is circulating.

Accessing and removing the pump on the 2.5TL doesn't look like much fun. You will need to remove cooling fans for access, never a pleasant task.

good luck