Power steering riddle for the day

clues:

It hasnt rained here in 6 months or longer, yesterday it started raining non stop.

Might have smelled something while driving this am, like burning smell.

Power steering pump made a god awful whine while pulling into work.

Fluid was foamy and some came out of the resevoir when i opened it, heres a pic:



Its literally raining too hard to tell if i have a leak, so i can update that in a bit.

 

The screen in the reservoir is most likely clogged causing the whine and cavitation.

 

Could be the pump screen is clogged...
and could be the cause of that burning smell...
but so could the rack be of fault if that's cooking the PS or ATF fluid.

That smell could also be associated with a leak, spill or mud burning on the engine block.
^ Probably not your issue... But should be noted for others.

Your PS or ATF fluid looks brown/dirty to me.
How many miles on the ODO ?
Has the PS or ATF fluid ever been changed ?

I'm not familar with what PS fluid color a '11 utilizes.
But the 1st gen uses ATF and that's red.

Pump screens do not usually clog up unless
the wrong fluid is put in /or added to, and it congeals.
Or the fluid is getting real hot... causing damage to the R&P

Possibly the R&P is failing internally and contaminating the pump's screen ?
how how is the pump... how hot is the R&P ?

Definitely needs to be looked into.

I'd start by flushing the PS/R&P system and replace with fresh fluid.
See what occurs then.

 

Update,

The reservoir screen was clogged. Another member on here posted a wonderful diy thread on rebuilding the reservoir. The only tricky part is taking the cap off. I used a screwdriver to pry open the flanges, then when it was time to re-install I used a larger flathead screwdriver and pounded them back in with a hammer, clamping the top back on to create the seal.

What I did that worked really well was pop the reservoir off once I had the pump on the bench, and soaked the whole thing in simple green overnight. Gave it a hot water bath to rinse off the cleaner and then re-installed everything, and flushed the system. But not before installing a shiny new harbor freight o-ring on the bottom of the reservoir

System is working great now, gotta love toyotas.

 

Do you have any before and after pictures of the screen?

I had posted pictures of the disassembly in this thread: is there an easy way to take the top off the power steering fluid reservoir. But I never found a good chemical to clean the screen, although I didn't try soaking it overnight. I had a used replacement reservoir so that screen was trash anyway.

 

Im usually pretty good about taking pics but I didnt this time. The screen went from being a matrix for thick black gunk to being absolutely free of debris. Very happy with the result the ps system works amazing now

 

How long did this take you? considering it as my whole PS system has been causing problems.

 

Well The truck was down overnight while I soaked the resevoir, but remiving the pump, resevoir, reinstalling, and full ps system flush took about 2.5-3 hours of work.

I did everything without taking the fan gaurd off, and man that locking nut for the ps belt tensioner is a royal pita to get to. What I did was use a shallow socket held by vice grips. Open end wrench wouldnt quite do it without the fan gaurd off