Car: 2007 Acura TL Base

Problem: Borderline unable to park and reverse the car in parking lots. It requires both hands to muscle the wheel to reverse out of spots. I have to make wide turns to park it straight into the parking spot. At higher speeds, it seems to work ok. I know people have said the steering is tight, but it doesn't make sense that I would literally have to fight the steering wheel to park and reverse in parking lots.

Things I've Tried So Far: At first I thought it would be easy with the two o-rings for those hoses on both sides of the pump, but it doesn't seem to have fixed everything. Pump whine went away and the steering got a little bit better, but it's now more obvious what the problem is narrowed down to. I cleaned out the reservoir and topped up fluid to the appropriate level. There's no signs of a leak now that those hose o-rings have been replaced.

Any suggestions? power steering pump? power steering pressure switch? could the power steering hose o-rings being bad for years cause the pump to go bad? Is there anything in the suspension that could cause it to be that bad? Looking at past threads this seems like some sort of parts replacing nightmare and not much insight as to how to narrow it down.

 

Power steering pump is the issue. I had the same symptom.

 

Usually a bad pump makes noise. Do you hear a whine?

 

there was a clear pump whine before I replaced the orange o-ring on that power steering pump inlet. There isn't any pump whine anymore after that o-ring was replaced.

 

How many miles are on your car? Has the high pressure hose recall been done? It sounds like the pumps not getting enough fluid to the rack, or it has air in the system (but the noise would be obvious if it has air in the ps system). I'd start with that. Then check for other leaks in the pump or return lines. You'll have a build up of dry/burnt fluid in the engine bay below the reservoir or by the boots on the rack if there's a leak(s).

 

140k miles. I changed the o-rings on both sides of the pump and there isn't any air in the system. No more foaming in the reservoir.

I don't see any leaking fluid and the reservoir level hasn't changed. I've had fluid leaks for power steering on other cars before and it's usually pretty obvious as you have to top up fluid regularly.

I see some reference to a high pressure hose fluid leak for the power steering, but the volume of fluid in the reservoir hasn't changed since I replaced the o-rings. My vin didn't show any active recalls on my vehicle. I went to this site: Recall Information for Safety & Defects | Acura Owners Site

 

Then I'd lean towards the rack being the problem if that's the case. It could be a small leak barely seeping pass the boot on the rack and not noticable in the reservoir right away. But yeah, you should be able to see it if it has a leak. Otherwise check the rest of the O-Rings in the pump (https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-p...-scans-841134/)

 

The pump is definitely the cheap way to start. I imagine I could do a pressure test for the pump, but the cost of that may be equivalent to just getting a remanufactured pump installed.

I don't seem to have the classic symptoms of a bad rack at least to what i've read. There's no loose feeling or binding. No play in the steering wheel. Just lacks any power steering assist at low speeds.

 

Best advice in this thread. Kind of put this off and kept driving it as is for the last six months, but finally got around to doing the pump. You could tell right away something was fixed as the wheel started turning much easier when parked. I guess this is the problem with getting these cars used and not knowing how it was originally supposed to be. Especially when there was no pump whine.

Haven't had the chance to really drive it around though as I found out an upper control arm is bad so have to park it till that is fixed.

 

Also, in hindsight there seemed like fresh fluid on the back side near the bottom of the pump. There was a lot of caked on oil and grime in that area that I originally thought was from the power steering o-ring leak. Seems more like the pump now that i see how much fluid is caked on there.

I also looked a little more carefully underneath the car. It really looks like the pump was leaking straight down to the oil pan. Just a mess down there with caked on fluid and grime.

Hope that extra bit of info helps anyone else that's on the fence and unsure which way to go.

 

Hey guys,

So I read through this forum and I have a couple questions... I have 2008 AT TL and I just recently started hearing a whine any time the car the car revs past 1500 to 2000 rpms. The car can be in park, neutral, or drive and I'll the whine if i rev the car. It sounds like the whine is coming from the power steering pump itself. I've had a couple suggestions that it's the serpentine belt tensioner but I took of my belt and played with the pulleys and they're quiet as ever and rotate smoothly so I don't think that's the issue. I'm thinking it may be the power steering pump be cause of the whine and when parking sometimes the steering wheel gets fairly heavy and hard to rotate. Not all the time, just sometimes. I have no visual power steering fluid leaks and I've looked for bubbles while the car is running and nothing. Also, there is no extra whine when I turn the steering wheel. The car drives and steers perfect except for the occasional hard to turn steering wheel when parking. I've looked in my carfax as well and there is no evidence of the power steering pump recall being performed but my carfax also says there are no open recalls for my car? My car has 100k miles so if I take it to the dealer will they even bother with the recall? Any suggestions or help would be amazing!

 

the steering part of your comments sounds like a milder version of my issues. Basically the power steering pump on it's way out. The pump whine is also a nice clue too.

Doesn't sound like you're having to top up fluid or have any leaks like I did. I too was hoping it was something easy like the power steering o-rings everyone talks about. If you get a new pump, i would replace those o-rings on both sides of the pump as they are so cheap. I didn't bother to replace mine with the recent pump replacement as I had just replaced the o-rings last summer.

 

Rather than getting a new pump, you can actually reman yours by changing all the o-rings/gaskets.

http://www.acuraoemparts.com/auto-pa...p-bracket-scat
#12-13-14-15-16-17

$30 worth of rubber and it's as good as new. Not sure why 17 is so expensive, it used to be normally priced...Should be around $5 instead of $25, might be worth ordering from somewhere else.

 

Yeah.. besides the whine and the hard to turn steering wheel while parking everything else operates just fine! Thanks for the reply, it definitely helps!

 

I'll definitely try doing this! About two years ago I replaced the o-ring that's the culprit of the very common whine when you turn the steering wheel. That problem was solved it took five minutes. I don't know why I didn't think of replacing all of the o-rings earlier! This is why this site is so helpful Haha

 

Just as a final follow up since i couldn't properly test drive this the other day since i had that upper control arm issue.

Power steering is many times better than it was. It feels like a normal car now. For as many people who comment on it being stiff, it's not so stiff that it borders on unusable at low speeds. With the o-rings done, hopefully this should keep me good for a couple years.

I took a chance and used this power steering pump on ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Power-S...pakJCS&vxp=mtr

The reason I did that is because it allows me to keep the OEM and rebuild it if needed and swap this one out. Best of both worlds.

 

I've looked into this and I'm going to changed the inlet o-ring (#13) and the pressure hose o-ring. I can't seem to find the pressure hose o-ring though. Maybe I'm dumb but it's not in the diagram you referenced right?

 

I had a factory recall replaced the O-ring in my TL at about 40K miles. I'm probably gonna replace the whole pump this time around.

 

yes loud whining won’t even turn smooth while driving