Power steering pump noise, '97 850 GLT

dnfrick · Post by **dnfrick** » 26 Mar 2007, 19:14

My 850 GLT with only 130K miles has annoying noise coming from the power steering pump. When I checked the fluid level there was foam in the reservoir. This seemed to come on suddenly. 130K seems young to have pump failure. Any suggestions of cause other than pump failure? No work has been done on the PS system.

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 26 Mar 2007, 21:02

My 850 GLT with only 130K miles has annoying noise coming from the power steering pump. When I checked the fluid level there was foam in the reservoir. This seemed to come on suddenly. 130K seems young to have pump failure. Any suggestions of cause other than pump failure? No work has been done on the PS system.

Either there is an abundance of air in the system or the fluid has gone bad. Did you add anything to the power steering and, if so, what type of fluid was it? I added Dexron to my Jeep only to find out that it turns into the McDonald's grease tray when mixed with "power steering fluid".

For starters try starting the car and turning the wheel "lock to lock" left and right a dozen times or so and check again. If the fluid is still foamy (quietly, in the middle of the night) steal a turkey baster out of the kitchen and suck as much fluid out of the reservoir as you can and refill. Go through the lock to lock cycle again, repeat sucking out the old fluid, and refill. It may take two or three iterations of the process but it should flush the system and fix the problem.

Our cars use ATF for the steering system.

...Lee

Post by **hausmeister** » 27 Mar 2007, 02:43

I had about the same problem. Problem was bad fluid / air in the system. First I changed the fluid with method mentioned by ozrak, but still had air in the system which only went away after some driving.

After that I did a full flush of the system to get rid of all the bad fluid.

edit: https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/chat/p ... 8206#28206