My power steering pump has been whining for about a year or so. The car doesn't see much fun. About 1000 miles a year, if even that. It would make that whine every time you start the car up, and then after a mile it will go away. If you spray WD-40 on the pulley, it will go away immediately.
We then replaced the entire power steering pump assembly with a new one, and OMG! HORRIBLE DEATH SQUEAL! Constant! Super loud. Super embarrassing. Never goes away. And when you try to spray lubricant, the horrible squealing noise just continues, unaffected. It's got about 200 miles on it now, and supposedly did not make that noise when first installed. Did I get a bad pump, or installed it wrong? There are bolt nuts where it mounts that look as if they touch the inside of the pulley, which I would suspect might cause the noise, except, there's a big enough clearance gap for me to slide a business card between them. Maybe with the engine running/vibrating, that changes the clearance, but I have no idea how to test safely. Plus, even if it is that, I can't tighten them any further. What should I look for? It's got plenty of new fluid. Did I just get a bad pump?
We then replaced the entire power steering pump assembly with a new one, and OMG! HORRIBLE DEATH SQUEAL! Constant! Super loud. Super embarrassing. Never goes away. And when you try to spray lubricant, the horrible squealing noise just continues, unaffected. It's got about 200 miles on it now, and supposedly did not make that noise when first installed. Did I get a bad pump, or installed it wrong? There are bolt nuts where it mounts that look as if they touch the inside of the pulley, which I would suspect might cause the noise, except, there's a big enough clearance gap for me to slide a business card between them. Maybe with the engine running/vibrating, that changes the clearance, but I have no idea how to test safely. Plus, even if it is that, I can't tighten them any further. What should I look for? It's got plenty of new fluid. Did I just get a bad pump?
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