the-G-ride

I know theres quite a few threads about P/S issues but please bear with me...My P/S fluid looks like a bubbling caramel latte is in the reservior. It's not supposed to look like that is it? or bubble up? I honestly never looked at it prior to this but the fluid wasn't that color when I put it in.

About 2-3 weeks ago I did a P/S flush. The cars steering was as smooth as butter. No noise coming from the pump, no nothing. Fast forward to last sunday and I started having major issues. Sunday night I went on a very spirited drive, hitting speeds of 130-140mph. Hard on the gas, hard on the brake, in and out of lanes for about 15-20mins (it was late sunday night with basically no one on the road so no need to get anyones panties up in a bunch) The car felt absolutley fantastic, drove like a dream and the steering was nice and tight.

Monday morning I start the car and I hear this "urrrrrrrrrr" sound coming from the P/S pump. If I turn the wheel, the noise gets louder. I've been reading that it can possibly be a bad o-ring but the pump was perfectly fine before I went on my little joy ride and i haven't even touched the pump when I was doing the flush. Could something have happened while pushing the car that hard? I've never had a problem with the pump before and it was working perfectly fine for the 2-3 weeks after I did the flush.

I've been driving the car since monday while its making this noise and I think its getting louder. Any ideas on what the issue is? Worst case senario is that I have to replace the pump, but I'm trying to avoid that.

TLer trash

Ninety-nine times out of ten, it's the p/s pump inlet o-ring. Honda and acura dealers usually keep the updated one in stock. It's only a couple bucks, and easy to do it yourself.

the-G-ride

I figured it was the o-ring but I still wanted to ask. I just found it weird that it went bad right after that ride I had. I thought the ring only went bad if you messed with the tensioner. In any event, I'll try to change the rings this weekend and get back with an update.

Any reason as to why my P/S fluid looks like that though?

TLer trash

The o-rings get compressed, and stiff with age. Sometimes it just takes a nudge, or temperature change (or driving like Steve McQueen) to push it over the edge. When the ring loses it's ability to seal, the pump sucks air, creating the foam.

3.2TLc

Yeah, try another flush and replace the o-ring as TLer trash suggested.
Then upon completion, go out on another spirited run to test the pump out.

Post back with the results after ya check your own underwear once the run is done !!!

the-G-ride

Wow that would completely explain wth is goin on. I was really worried as to why the fluid looks like that. You my friend are a very knowledgeable person . I was going to order the pump repair kit from honda but I work at Advance Auto and I was able to get this one for 10 bucks. It should all be the same thing right? http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/p...+steering+seal

Haha I dont always drive that that fast but I usually push the car hard. If the moment presents itself, I shall run with it. I swear the car has a mind of its own though, one day it doesnt want to move, the next it swears its a race car lol. Thats why I was a bit surprised about the pump because I usually drive it hard any chance I get. But as TLer said, it only takes a bit extra to push over the edge, especially with it's old age.

I'll report back this weekend to let you guys know how it went.

3.2TLc

...........

the-G-ride

Alright an update...So I finally go around to changing the seals on the pump this past weekend. Was a fairly easy job with the exception of breaking one of the motor mount bolts.

The good: I replaced every seal, there were 6 of them, installed the pump and tah-dah, the noise was gone and the fluid wasn't boiling. Jacked the car up, bled the system and went for a drive. No noise no nothing at both high speeds and low.

The bad: Upon pulling into the drive way, while slowly moving I noticed the pump makes a grinding noise when turning, like its sucking for fluid. The wheel is very stiff and hard to turn. I loosened up the tension last night and when pulling out the driveway this morning, I noticed the grinding was gone and the wheel was smooth. I thought it was fixed, but when pulling into the lot at work, the noise was back and the wheel was stiff.

The only thing I can think of is that I over tightned the ps belt and damaged the pump bearing even though I read a dozen threads about being careful to not over tighten the belt. The pump is silent and doesn't make any noise at idle or when moving, just when stopped and trying to turn the wheel.

Does this sound like a pump bearing issue or is the pump just shot? I'd much rather replace the bearing than replace the whole pump.