Power steering pump whine

[Clewe]

Hey all, I recently did all belts including timing on my car.. well after I did that an awful whining noise was coming from the ps pump under acceleration and it only gets louder the more I rev. Well my steering rack was shot so I figured I'd replace them both (ps pump and rack) at the same time hoping the whine would go away. Well here my car sits with a fresh pump, steering rack, tie rods, and alignment and it still has the same awful whining noise under acceleration. Does anybody have any suggestions or ideas to get rid of this terrible noise? Any help would be great thanks.

[disturbed_audi]

your belts and or pulleys can cause a whine..

[ColoradoBob]

Make sure the reservoir is full. Mine did this with at one time because the reservoir wasn't completely full and it was getting air into the fluid. I overfilled it (or so I thought) and the noise went away. Level went down as the air was forced out of the fluid.

[AudiB5owner]

Hello, I actually had the same repairs done to my B5 (Pump, Rack and Pinion). Firstly you may want to check your PS fluid reservoir to check for signs of air in the line including bubbles, white presence foam. Secondly check the condition of the PS fluid, is it clear green like it normally is? Or is id darker and may have metal shavings or contaminants inside. This can be a sign that the pump is bad. Check the pulley and you may want to spray it down with some Pulley Conditioner to retain friction and grip. If everything installed is new and connected properly and you STILL have a whine, it may be caused by a faulty pump, which is what happened to me and I am currently replacing it.

When stopped in neutral, have someone turn the wheel at different angles and rev to different RPMs and try to locate where the sound is coming from. If you put your ear over the engine and can hear it, it most likely is the pump. Hope this helps.

[Clewe]

Hello, I actually had the same repairs done to my B5 (Pump, Rack and Pinion). Firstly you may want to check your PS fluid reservoir to check for signs of air in the line including bubbles, white presence foam. Secondly check the condition of the PS fluid, is it clear green like it normally is? Or is id darker and may have metal shavings or contaminants inside. This can be a sign that the pump is bad. Check the pulley and you may want to spray it down with some Pulley Conditioner to retain friction and grip. If everything installed is new and connected properly and you STILL have a whine, it may be caused by a faulty pump, which is what happened to me and I am currently replacing it.

When stopped in neutral, have someone turn the wheel at different angles and rev to different RPMs and try to locate where the sound is coming from. If you put your ear over the engine and can hear it, it most likely is the pump. Hope this helps.

Yeah my PS fluid is normal looking and it is still sitting a little above the max mark since I did the install. Yesterday I did turn on the car and rev it in neutral to see if I could hear exactly where the whine was coming from and where I could hear the whine the loudest was when I was right above the alternator and injectors, but I'm not sure what else would make this horrendously loud whine would be coming from if not my ps pump.

[Clewe]

your belts and or pulleys can cause a whine..

This sounds a little to prominent to be just a belt or pulley whine, also the belt is new and the pulley never made noises prior to all new belts being replaced.

[disturbed_audi]

This sounds a little to prominent to be just a belt or pulley whine, also the belt is new and the pulley never made noises prior to all new belts being replaced.

Thats what i figured when you said about the noise being more noticable then normal on accel rather then when turning the wheel. Well good luck.

[AudiB5owner]

Hmm..well first I'd check the belt, but it may still be the pump if you can hear it right below the engine intake/injectors. My mechanic also says alternator may make a whine, I guess the only true way to diagnose this problem is with a long stethoscope. How soon did you change the pump? It took about a month for my defective pump to turn my PS fluid dark and get louder. I made a thread on this exact issue with a video that can be found here: http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...pinion-(Video) I am getting my new pump in the next two days I'll have to see if that fixed it completely. If it is really loud, as you are describing, probably isn't solely caused by the pulley.

[SN95Audi87]

I had the same whine in the winter, apparently the rubber hoses get porous when its cold out and power steering fluid leaks at super slow rate. It scared me, and I found the whine so I went to the dealership to buy the green fluid, filled it and never happened again. I have to replace those rubber hoses sooner or later.

[Gberg888]

Mine goes through fluid and whines when it is low. I just refill it and whala, no more whine until it goes down again. IDK what it is, leaking fluid, bad pump, whatever... I just fill it. Ill fix it when it fails completely.