Hi Everyone,

I just recently replaced my PS Pump and serpentine belt after a PS Pump failure in my 2004 TL and have been having some PS assist issues at what seems to be low RPMs. The power steering appears to work great on a cold startup; there is no noise and the steering assistance is smooth. However, after driving 5-10 miles, pulling into parking spaces or hitting sharp turns seem to be tough and little PS assistance is given(RPMs are typically below 1000 when I am noticing issues). Here is a list of the recent work that I have done to try and remedy power steering issues:

• Replacement of the Power Steering pump (re-manufactured from advance auto parts) and serpentine belt
• Replacement of inlet and outlet o-rings on PS Pump being careful not to torque down the attachments too much
• Flush and replacement of PS fluid with Honda fluid.
  • I originally used the wrong PS fluid (not for honda) but quickly realized that I made this mistake and did a full flush of the fluid from the lines/reservoir with Honda fluid.
    • Drove about 20 miles with the wrong type of fluid
  • The old fluid was almost black and I'm not sure when this was last replaced
  • The PS Fluid reservoir definitely had debris in its filter so I tried to get as much of this out by shaking some PS fluid around and discarding this fluid
• Bled the air from the lines/pump by removing the reservoir cap and turning the wheel from lock to lock with the vehicle off 20+ times

The fluid level seems to stay constant as I continue to drive it so I do not think that there is a leak anywhere in the system but the intermittent loss of power steering is definitely concerning to me. Does anyone have any thoughts on how I may be able to remedy this issue? I am thinking about replacing the PS Fluid reservoir all together as it may be inducing enough drag on the pump to cause these issues at low RPMs? If I were to do this, I would probably flush the system one more time with honda fluid to make sure all of the debris/ incorrect fluid is 99% gone. Thanks in advance for any advice that you have to offer!

 

How is your serpentine belt tensioner? What is the belt deflection when you pull on it?

 

I think that the tensioner is good but i'll take another look at it and check out the belt deflection in the morning. If anything there may be too much tension. I was barely able to slip the belt over the last pulley even with an extra set of hands.

 

I doubt the fluid was the issue. As long as you did a good flush you should be fine there. I think Honda even says you can use other fluid in an emergency as long as you replace it all later. But "re-manufactured from advance auto parts" is what caught my eye. It may be fine, but it's definitely suspect IMO It may simply not be developing adequate pressure at low RPM. Another thought is did you get any PS fluid on any pulleys when you did the job and/or could some have got on the belt? Or did you clean all pulleys and put on a new belt. "barely able to slip the belt over the last pulley" sounds like a new belt (or not getting enough backward rotation on the tensioner)

 

I was kind of worried about the pump but I believe that it may be under warranty. Could this type of pump just not deliver adequate pressure or is it possible that I just got a faulty one? The belt is new because the last one got shredded when my original PS Pump failed. I used a cheater bar on the tensioner and it definitely hit it's back stop unless a tensioner going bad can prevent adequate backward rotation. I will try to remove the belt and clean up all of the pulleys/belt as there may have been a little bit of fluid that got on them during the flush.

 

Belt deflection is 1/2 inch or less when pressing with considerable pressure in between pulleys.