Power steering mystery - desperate

99 tacoma 3.4 manual 4x4 with 170k miles.

as long as i've owned my tacoma, the power steering pump would whine for a few seconds after a very cold start. one day recently, the whining never stopped, but i still had power steering. i took it to my mechanic who replaced the power steering pump with a cardone reman pump and thoroughly flushed the system (the fluid was very dirty), and topped it off with new atf.

he immediately told me the new pump was defective because the noise was still there. i drove it away WITH power steering and the noise stopped for about 5 or 10 miles. i thought it had got the bubbles out and was fine, but the noise came back AND i had NO power steering.

i exchanged the pump as defective for another cardone. changed, flushed, topped off and the exact same thing happened - thought it was fixed for 5 miles and back to broken.

my mechanic said replace the rack and the pump and try a better pump (duralast rather than cardone). so, i replaced the rack and the pump, again flushing and topping off. still no power steering and this pump seems to be the loudest yet.

toyota says i need toyota parts. my mechanic can't believe it, and feels almost as bad as i do. he won't let me pay him for any of his labor.

what should i do? can i still return the brand new rack to the part store if toyota says i need a toyota rack? will they use the oldest rack for the core charge? so far, i've invested $120 at one parts store (first pump minus core charge) and $750 at another (rack and pump and core charge).

 

anyone know about a screen in the power steering reservoir that clogs up? i also heard some reservoirs have a backup reservoir thats hard to flush??

 

Hmmm, interesting prediciment you find yourself in. Youv'e basically done everything I would have done, and it's hard for me to believe that the parts you've invested in are defective. You don't need a Toyota brand rack or pump. I replaced a rack and pump on my Tundra with NAPA rebulds and they were fine. I would leave all that on, and go ahead and replace all steering lines and reservoir. You may be right in your screen statement, though I don't know of one; doesnt mean theirs not one. You can get the high pressure line from a junkyard...otherwise they are PRICEY. You've already done this much, there are not many more components to rule out with this, good luck and post results.

BTW...I think there is an aluminum reservoir you can buy for cheaper than OEM, and supposedly it has benefits. But a quick search did not yeild anything for me here.

 

some people have also mentioned an "air control valve" in one of the hoses or just replacing the whole of the hoses. that would mean hiring a garage that builds hydraulic hoses or $400 brand new.

 

it was a clogged screen in the reservoir. cleaned the reservoir and ripped out the screen and now i have power steering. here's the rest of the story:

i took it to toyota friday morning 12/17 and they said they couldn't even look at it until after the new year. but they gave me the number of a mechanic who used to work for them and who only works on toyotas. he said right away that it was a clogged screen in the reservoir. and it was. this was consistent with another mechanic who said the reservoir doesn't get clean enough with just a system flush and needs special attention.

this screen is built in to the reservoir, so your options are
1. to slowly and thoroughly clean the reservoir and screen (with solvents and air/hydraulic pumps and/or vacuums)
2. rip out the screen,
or 3. buy a new reservoir from a junk yard or new for about $200.

anyone want to buy a perfectly good toyota rack and pinyon or a new power steering pump? email me.

 

somehow i missed this thread:

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/1st-gen-tacomas/56442-power-steering-problems-whining-pump.html

 

good to hear....good job

 

I'm doing some work on my newly bought '92 yota.
My power steering kept blowing a line. I bought a new line (flexible rubber high pressure). Put it on, blew in the same exact spot. I did some research about hydraulic systems. They fail for one of 3 reasons: 1. contamination, 2. cavitation, 3. heat. I felt my reservoir and the sucker was hot enough I couldn't hold on to it. There's some bigger tires than stock so I figured maybe heat was the one I would have to address.

I set out with the idea to just do a kind of overhaul on the system to cover all my bases. 1. inspect/rebuild pump, 2. flush system. 3. add bigger reservoir and a better cooler.

I opened up the pump and immediately regretted doing so when all the little vanes came falling out. Vastly more complicated than I anticipated but I wrapped my mind around it and after inspection noticed that there was some rough wear on the lil' valve thingy (technical terms used here) that slides in the tube with the spring. Instead of wasting time and money on a new seal kit I decided to just get a new pump (remanufactured).

Now here's the kicker.. turns out that my pump didn't have the appropriate high pressure line on the high pressure side. It was just a brass nipple with flexy tube on it. I'm no mechanic so I didn't know there was supposed to be a hard line off of the pump.

GAH! So all this work and I could have just remedied it with a 30$ hard line from the auto store. Well.. I'm in this far and hey maybe I'll want to put even bigger tires on.. shoot maybe I'll build a rock crawler.

For my first question though. The new pump has an additional outlet that my old one did not have. The guys at the auto store gave me a copper plug and just told me to plug it. (Not to dis on them but they did not inspire confidence in me). So my question is Do I just plug this additional outlet up?

My reservoir was sliced neatly in two this evening by my deft use of a cut off wheel. As per other forums and pictures I have acquired 3.5 inch exhaust tube and am going to make a larger reservoir.

And now for my other questions and what actually brought me to this forum and thread: A. The screen thingy in the bottom does not come out? B. Do I leave it in or tear it out? C. Where does the inline filter go exactly? ( I assumed it would go on the section of hosing running from the reservoir to the pump to stop any junk making it to the pump).

I know the above is a frickin' novel. I'm new here and I apologize for the word 'splosion. Thank you for your time and patience.

-Ian-

 

sorry man, i don't have answers except the reservoir screen needs to be ripped out if you want to take it out. worked for me. after three new pumps and a new rack, i was never able to sell the rack (because they never break) and only got $60 for the core return.
over $1000 for a clogged screen.