

Since your pump is drawing fluid into the rotor and vanes from the return reservoir at a vacuum, air can also be pulled in if there are any loose hose connections.

First, you could have air bubbles in your power steering fluid due to a loose low pressure hose. Air can get in your power steering system from a few different sources. If you’ve kept up with regular maintenance on your car including changing your power steering fluid as recommended, then the whine is most likely due to air bubbles in your system. If you have power steering pump noise then you most likely have one of these problems. The problem can be something as simple as worn out fluid that has lost its additives or physical properties and doesn’t pump well to small air bubbles in the power steering fluid that foam and cause the vanes to vibrate and whine. The whine is usually created by a problem with the power steering fluid that the pump is trying to move. It is the special design of the vane and rotor that creates the unique whine you hear when your power steering isn’t operating correctly. When spinning, these vanes throw the power steering fluid into the outlet hose on the pump creating the high pressure needed for the system. Inside the pump housing is a rotor with vanes or blades attached to it. A rotary vane pump is actually designed more like a fan than a typical pump. Your power steering pump does this by attaching a belt and pulley to a rotary vane pump.

Your power steering pump is required to take the rotary motion of your engine’s crankshaft and convert it into high pressure fluid that can be used to assist you in turning the heavy wheels of your car. The unique noise your power steering pump makes when something is wrong is due to its specific design.
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In order to figure out how to fix your power steering pump noise, it can be helpful to understand why your power steering pump gets noisy in the first place. In some rare cases transmissions have been known to make whining sounds also as they have similar pumps and use similar fluids, but since your transmission is much bigger and on the other side of your engine, it is usually pretty easy to tell where the sound is coming from by simply popping your hood and listening for the sound at idle. Even if you weren’t previously aware of what a power steering pump is, once you’ve had the misfortune of dealing with a noisy power steering pump, the sound will no longer be a mystery. There can be a lot of clunks, squeaks or hums that can indicate a wide variety of other problems, but a whining power steering pump us usually very distinctive. Power steering pump noise is one of the most identifiable sounds your car can make when it is broken.
