Power steering and the cold

[dripley]

Been dealing with some mid 20's temps of late. Fire the truck in the am and the steering pump is moaning and groaning. Thats not to surprising to me since the pump is the OE pump and could stand a fluid change. The weird part is I drive about a mile from the house to get coffee and its moaning and groaning the whole way. Park, get coffee then jump in the truck fire it off and no moaning and groaning, not a sound. Drive 25 miles to the and still nothing. Not complaining but it does seem weird that after a mile of it complaining, all I have to do is shut it down and restart and it quits complaining. 

[IBMobile]

Let's see,  the OE pump has almost 500k on it;  I think it's time for a new one.  

Edited February 28, 2020 by IBMobile

[dripley]

4 hours ago, IBMobile said:

Let's see,  the OE pump has almost 500k on it;  I think it's time for a new one.  

I do believe l have gotten my moneys worth out of it.

[Haggar]

Drip,

 

You are hearing the relief valve.   The thick oil just doesn't want to go through the orifice.  That is usually what squeels.   Do a down and dirty turkey (chicken?) baster fluid change and see if it helps.  (get a cheap turkey (chicken?) baster, and a can you can discard.  Take out what you can from the reservoir and discard, replace with new.)    Next evening do the same thing again.  Do it about 4 or 5 times and you will have replaced most of the old oil.   if it does... no need to change pumps. 

 

GL 

 

Hag 

[dripley]

2 hours ago, Haggar said:

Drip,

 

You are hearing the relief valve.   The thick oil just doesn't want to go through the orifice.  That is usually what squeels.   Do a down and dirty turkey (chicken?) baster fluid change and see if it helps.  (get a cheap turkey (chicken?) baster, and a can you can discard.  Take out what you can from the reservoir and discard, replace with new.)    Next evening do the same thing again.  Do it about 4 or 5 times and you will have replaced most of the old oil.   if it does... no need to change pumps. 

 

GL 

 

Hag 

I am going give that a shot when I get home. In have a dedicated baster in the shop for that. Not turkey nor chicken. Just been a while since I have done it. Just seems weird that its groaning formthe 3 minute ride for coffee and then on restart nothing. Guess maybe the fluid gets warm just sitting the resevoir for those few minute is not running.

[Mopar1973Man]

Time to flush and refill. Only good for30k miles then the fluid starts to moan when cold. Just changing typically fixes the problem for me. Still using cheap SuperTech power steering fluid.

 

Do it right with a full flush. just using a baster will only pull barely pint maybe? There is just about 2 quarts of fluid in the system. Like draining 1.5 gallon out of the crankcase and topping off again. 

Edited February 28, 2020 by Mopar1973Man

[Haggar]

Drip,

 

Yeah  the pump operates at about 1500psi and 3 gpm.    so in those couple minutes you have turned the system over quite a few times.

 

GL

Hag

[cs15dah]

When I lived in ND, it groaned all the time when it was below zero.  I switched over to synthetic fluid and I don't believe I ever heard it groan again, even when -40F.

 

I'm still on my original power steering pump.  I recently replaced the gasket between the pump and reservoir, though.

[IBMobile]

  

[dripley]

5 hours ago, IBMobile said:

  

I actually have one of those aging in my shop.

[Mopar1973Man]

12 hours ago, cs15dah said:

When I lived in ND, it groaned all the time when it was below zero.  I switched over to synthetic fluid and I don't believe I ever heard it groan again, even when -40F.

 

Same here. But the only difference is I change fluids every 30k miles and used petroleum products. No issues as of yet at 409k miles and still rolling. 

[dripley]

Mine is overdue for a change. Not sound last year but it is rebelling this year.