Leaky & Squeaky Units

Got myself a 2006 access cab V6, 4wd Taco with approximately 125K on her.

Recently noticed she has been going through a lot of power steering fluid and leaking what appears to be water or clear fluid in small volume from passenger side area.

Separately I am getting a high pitched squeaking noise from driver side of engine compartment during idle and driving.

Replaced an idler pulley and serpentine built approximately 2,500 miles ago.

I do mostly city driving and probably put more use on the power steering than normal with lots of multi point turns in narrow streets and what not. But it has never required this much fluid.

Crawled under her this morning and took some pictures of what appeared to be the problem area. Photos are taken from underneath passenger side of vehicle.

Any insight in to the cause of these symptoms would be awesome, Thanks!

 

I would clean the engine bay good, spray some purple cleaner or de-greaser and hose it down, then see if it's a hose or the pump. The noise could be another idler pulley or the belt slipping from some fluid leaking on it, i would try that first...

 

That second picture looks like the power steering pump has a leak. Of course what toyotaman29 said is a good start to verify this.

Clean it really well then drive it around slowly so it doesn't blow the fluid everywhere and then get another look see.

 

thanks guys. Going to get on this in the next few days. trying to keep her off the road until then. Suspecting power steering pump is the issue.