97 Avalon Pwr Steering Pump Probs

[parimento1]

Replaced the power steering pump due to a leak a few weeks ago with my own pump. This is the 3rd pump in as many years- 1 was my mechanics rebuilt part with a 6 mo warranty, the other is from autozone, which failed but is lifetime warranty, but not for labor obviously. The new part from autozone does not leak...however I am having an intermittent loss of power steering especially when parallel parking. Some days the assist is fine, some days I get little or no assist. My question is, what could be causing this? I was thinking that there is a pressure regulator that is sticking and causing it to not give enough pressure to the rack, but this is just a guess. Any ideas? Also if I need to replace the pump again, the labor charge really bites..is it a hard job to change the pwr steering pump in this car?

 

[Quest]

you may be experiencing pressure loss due to poorly rebuilt pump, or there's some metal shavings in your oil, causing accelerated wear.

Regardless, other than turkey basting the fluid with fresh ones, the other option is to resort to using some sort of filter in PS lines to rid of the debris. An ATF filter add on came in mind..

Q.

 

[mechtech2]

Also a slipping belt will do this. You may not hear it squeak.
The rack or gear may be bad, as well.
Any noises? Hot or cold worse? Fluid color and particulate matter in it?

 

[parimento1]

I hear whining noises coming from it when the assist goes away, like humming noise coming from I beleive the pump. It seems to be worse when it is hot. The fluid color is nice and red and I see no particulate in it.

 

[Dropout]

Originally Posted By: parimento1
I hear whining noises coming from it when the assist goes away, like humming noise coming from I beleive the pump. It seems to be worse when it is hot. The fluid color is nice and red and I see no particulate in it.


The belt.

 

[parimento1]

I drove it today and all was fine..if it was the belt would it make a loud squealing noise?

 

[mechtech2]

You may or may not hear a squeak/squeal if the belt slips. Usually you would, but not always.

 

[parimento1]

the belt is only 5 months old, but I checked it today for tightness. It seems tight enough by pressing on it. I had my friend start the car and turn the wheel lock to lock and looked to see if the belt was slipping. It lookeed fine to me. It worked fine today as well. I do notice, however, that the system does whine and make groaning noise when turning the wheel while stopped. The old pump, even though it was leaking, didn't groan like that. It almost sounds like there is air in the system or the pump is sucking air from some place. If the pump is sucking air, would fluid also be leaking? It has not lost a drop of fluid since replacing the pump.

 

[babyjay8495]

I would say bad reman pump from autozone.