Have I Damaged the Power Steering Pump?

[Rabbitaway]

Hi

I was replacing the rotten oil cooler on my CV8 Monaro and when I came to fill the system with ATF I allowed the pump to run dry for about 45 seconds after the first fill was drawn into the system. The PAS was working as I was turning lock to lock to bleed.

My mistake as I was trying to do the job myself without a helper

The pump now whines when under load particularly if I raise the engine revs

The sheering is working fine and no noise when the pump is off load

Do I just live with a noisy pump or do I need to spend £300 on a new one?

Thanks

[jameshsv]

Rabbitaway said:

Hi

I was replacing the rotten oil cooler on my CV8 Monaro and when I came to fill the system with ATF I allowed the pump to run dry for about 45 seconds after the first fill was drawn into the system. The PAS was working as I was turning lock to lock to bleed.

My mistake as I was trying to do the job myself without a helper

The pump now whines when under load particularly if I raise the engine revs

The sheering is working fine and no noise when the pump is off load

Do I just live with a noisy pump or do I need to spend £300 on a new one?

Thanks

Did you jack the front of the car up when bleeding the powersteering

[Rabbitaway]

Hi

No the car was not jacked up but there appears to be no air in the system as any roughness is away

Good number of lock to locks and driven about for 15 miles or so

Thanks

[stevieturbo]

Rabbitaway said:

Hi

I was replacing the rotten oil cooler on my CV8 Monaro and when I came to fill the system with ATF I allowed the pump to run dry for about 45 seconds after the first fill was drawn into the system. The PAS was working as I was turning lock to lock to bleed.

My mistake as I was trying to do the job myself without a helper

The pump now whines when under load particularly if I raise the engine revs

The sheering is working fine and no noise when the pump is off load

Do I just live with a noisy pump or do I need to spend £300 on a new one?

Thanks

45 seconds shouldnt be too bad, give it some time before splashing out.

[Behold81]

Rabbitaway said:

Hi

No the car was not jacked up but there appears to be no air in the system as any roughness is away

Good number of lock to locks and driven about for 15 miles or so

Thanks

My new(second hand) pump is the same. but gets worse when warm. its performing much better than the old unit though and its not leaking! that's a bonus.

[stevieturbo]

Mine's quiet most of the time.

After some racing though it does groan a bit. But it never seems to have a negative effect during racing on turning the wheel.
But at idle speeds it probably isnt perfect after a thrash.

But normal driving etc it's always quiet.

[DCLXIV]

Mine makes a fairly loud whine pretty much all the time, especially on full lock. However, the steering feels fine, there's no ominous rumbling and nothing has changed over the past 1000 miles that I've owned the car. I'm not planning on changing, but am budgeting for a replacement just in case.

[alfienoakes]

Mine didn't survive being bled after I changed the oil cooler either. It was already a bit noisy after 100k, but then it started shuddering at parking speeds too. A new one from Monkfish sorted it

[VinceM]

If it's noisy and doesn't judder then it should be fine, but keep an eye on the fluid level. Once the fluid level starts to drop and/or the steering starts to judder it's time to change it over. Mine made a noise like a s/c but then changed it and it stopped.

[Rabbitaway]

Thanks for all the replies

I have run the car for a week and pump has got a little less noisey when on load

There is some slight judder when turning lock to lock that I did put down to a little air in the system initially but now may be the pump

If the pump is away they do seem very fragile considering the short time of dry running

The car has only done 50k with no PAS issues until the oil cooler change