Power steering pump bearing noise

[bendrinkwater1990]

Hey guys,

At idle i have a bearing type dull whine coming from my engine, i have listened to all the pulleys and idlers with a stethoscope and all sound normal. The noise pulses, it does not reamain a constant noise.
I pulled off the serpentine belt and checked all pulleys for movement and play, the only problem area i found was the power steering pump pulley, i could move it in and out around 3-5 mm. Is this excessive play? The engine has done 163,000k's, Could that be causing the noise?

Thanks guys

[lifeguard_aus]

3-5mm isn't good, have you tried dry lube around the pullys as well?

[bendrinkwater1990]

yeah i dry lubed and wd4o'd all the pulleys. should i notice reduced power steering aswell?

[Brett_jjj]

Take off the drive belt,start the engine and see if the noise is gone.This will confirm the noise is from one of the pulley bearings or water pump.While the belt is off,spin all the pulleys and water pump by hand and see if any of the bearings feel or sound rough.A rough or noisy pulley will most likely be the culprit.The engine can be safely run for a couple of minutes with no drive belt.

[immortality]

power steering pump doesn't run a normal ball bearing type bearing. it uses a white metal bearing much like the mains and bigend bearings in the motor and the bearing is lubricated by the power steering fluid.

when the vanes in the pump wear it can create noise. strip the pump, turn the vanes over and see what happens.

[bendrinkwater1990]

Thanks alot guys. ill strip it on the weekend

[immortality]

there is a howto for power steering pumps. give a few pointers to get around a few problems. may pay to pick-up a pump seal kit as the O-rings will possibly be stuffed and won't seal properly after dis-assembly

[RX25SE]

^^^^
Pump seal kit is dirt cheap from Holden.

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

+2 for what immortality says, it will be the vanes. A complete rebuild kit is only about $70.

[RX25SE]

A complete rebuild kit is only about $70.

Does this include new vanes, bearing etc?
From memory I paid around $9.00 for a seal/ O ring kit. I thought this was all you could get?

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

You can get the whole kit including vanes. I paid around $55 about 5 years ago.

The kit comes with instructions and in there it says you have to use a puller to separate the pulley from the shaft, but it comes out the other way anyway so there is no need to do that. Took me about 1/2 an hour to rebuild the pump and put it back on.

[immortality]

yeah, you dis-assemble the pump from the rear and you leave the pulley on the front and just pull the shaft out the front. when i stripped mine there was nothing wrong with the bearing. i just fitted new seals and turned the vanes over

you boys are lucky in OZ, the same rebuild kit is almost $200 in NZ from Holden