Hello Everyone,

Well here in MD we had our first snow of the year yesterday. When I went out to start my car, a gawd-awful noise came from the steering pump. It went away at speed, and once the car warmed up.

I immediately took it to the shop (I am still scarred from my previous car, Audi TT 3.2, which had serious issues. Most expensive was a steering rack). My guy said that the rack, and pump looked fine, and no leaks were evident. He also said that my fluid was totally nasty (it was original).

All said and done, he flushed my fluid and the noise was gone. Cost $100.

I then had an emergency at work last night, and when I went into the office at 3am, it made the noise again upon start up, but went away once it warmed up. I came home, and searched the forum and found the following link:

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-2004-2008-93/p-s-whine-cold-start-up-tsb-fyi-699272/

It seems to be a faulty O-ring that coast literally $2-3 bucks. I went out this morning and started it up, and there was indeed bubbles in my fluid. I am gonna perform the O-ring switch tomorrow, and hopefully it should be good to go. WATCH THE VIDEO AT THE END OF THE THREAD!!! VERY VERY HELPFUL!

Just wanted to post this in case anyone else has this issue as it is getting cold out!!

Hope everyone's well...
Jeff

 

Hard to say for sure, but the O ring issue has caused lots of issues for many 3G owners. I think there was a TSB for this as well.

Good luck -

 

most likely it was the o-ring from teh begining and you got taken for $100

 

Maybe not $100, but definitely got taken. After all they flushed the power steering fluid

 

I'm gonna MT this thread in case. Mine seems to whine a bit. I'd like to stay on top of it.

 

I wouldn't say taken... You should have seen my fluid! It was def time for a change that needed to be done anyways.

I need to go out to get a wrench that fits the bolt. There is VERY little room to work on the bolt. It seems so easy, but for my pork chop like hands it is a tight fit for sure!

 

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-problems-fixes-114/diy-105-power-steering-whine-fix-754586/

 

i dont mean to thread jack but i swapped the o-ring last year when it happened to me and it stopped the noise. the noise just came back last week and i dont know what i should do. i assume these o-rings are supposed to last a long time so i dont know if i should just go right ahead and change it again.

 

Take it out and inspect it...

BUT, I will say that I recently had a leak that ran down the entire side of the engine. I did a whole power steering pump overhaul for...wait for it...wait for it...eight bucks. Stopped the leak and probably any other issues.

You sure it's still the power steering pump noise? My belt tensioner pulley or idler pulley bearings went too and caused an annoying noise.

04 TL with 76K miles here.

J.

 

It should last more than just one season. When was the last time you had a PSF flush?

 

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-problems-fixes-114/diy-105-power-steering-pump-overhaul-pics-sm-scans-841134/

 

FWIW, I took my mine to the dealer and they replaced the washer for free. Worth checking...

 

replaced mine yest... took about 20 min with my messed up hands.... helped the noise a little bit... did a flush about 10k miles ago... any other ideas? the noise isn't completely gone... i'm at 95k so warranty is out the window... thanks