New Power steering pump - Same whining

I have a 2004 tacoma 4x4 with the 3.4 liter engine. The power steering pump was making some noise like old ones tend to do. The fluid level was good and there were no air bubbles so I decided to swap the pump and reservoir. I got a new pump and reservoir and flushed the power steering fluid and purged the air out. the new reservoir is full and there are no air bubbles yet the same whining noise persists. the new pump and res are not OEM. any suggestions on next steps? thank you.

 

Are you 100% sure it's the power steering pump making the noise?

 

thats a good point. yes I am, removed PS belt and sound went away.

 

How much time have you given it? My heart sunk after replacing the steering rack, it seemed like forever before it started to quiet down, but eventually did (probably an hour on the jackstands, but gone by the next day.)

If it's whining/groaning, you still have air (or a bad pump, which in the grand scheme of averages is not likely but not impossible.) Do that hard/right/hard left thing again, drive it a little see if it starts to quiet down.

 

@rocknbil

Thanks for the reply. it’s been a week now. I’ve put it up on jack stands and steered to the stops on both sides. The whining hasn’t changed at all and that’s why I’m thinking there might be another issue.

 

Any more quite possible your pump is bad out of the box.

Your belt is not pulled to tight putting on to much load on the bearing.

 

@Bivouac

thank you for the reply. I definitely have not considered belt tension as the culprit. I’ll inspect/adjust that tomorrow. Thank you!

 

Your welcome it was just a thought.

 

I having the same issue. I replaced everything PS pump, the lines, belt, sensor and the rack. I guess there is still air in the system but I go lock to lock on jack stands with the lid off and it's just as bad. When I tell you this is driving me crazy you got no idea. Any help at all please and thank you.

 

Did you reuse the old reservoir? And if so did you clean the screen at the bottom of it?

 

Did you use an OEM pump? I’ve come to the conclusion that some aftermarket pumps are just noisy. I don’t even think it’s necessarily cavitation because they will whine with no air bubbles in the res.

My OEM PS pump started leaking and making noise so I swapped it with an aftermarket pump and res. That pump was much louder than my old OEM pump. So what I did was buy the 30 dollar pump rebuild kit and rebuild my OEM pump. That completely resolved the whine.

 

The PS pulley bearing does go bad. I replaced mine a while back. My mechanic was full of it, said the pump was going, and I'm still on the original pump with no issue and no sound now. Did you check the pulley for play and quiet spin when the belt was off?

 

I don"t know. Could wrong fluid cause that? Should be dexron atf.

 

I fixed the noise issue mine was the idler pulley the whole time. My pump was probably fine. The rack was leaking. But now I have no noise. But my shifter is stuck in park. If it hit the release button next to the shifter works fine. The 15amp stop fuse is blown under the hood if I replace the fuse the issue is fixed but as soon as I put it into park the fuse blows again.