As the title states, I’m having problems with power steering on my 01 disco 2 V8.

started a few days ago, noticed the pump was louder than normal. Think “I don’t remember putting a supercharger on this” type whine. Progressively got worse, whirring under load. Initially only did it cold but progressed to all the time, worse under steering load. Eventually died on me what felt like completely with only breaths of power assistance and sounded like a cat being run over in slow motion.

drained the reservoir, checked the filter in that and there was no blockage. No biggie, threw a pump into it this afternoon and replaced the low pressure inlet hose just in case. Bled the pump up and that’s where my problems began. Standard lock to lock and it was still bubbly, and whirring. Bled it twice at the steering box, no more bubbles but still whirring. I’ve ran about a litre and a half of fluid through it so I know it’s clean. I’ve bled it on the ground, I’ve elevated the front and lock to lock-ed it. I’ve driven it with high rpm, I’ve driven it idling around, trying to get rid of the whirring, and nothing. I’ve also left it for different periods of time, up to around half an hour, to allow air in the fluid to dissipate before moving on to the next method of bleeding.

Whirring with the new pump is about as bad as it was with the old, maybe marginally quieter.

I’ve pulled the old pump apart to check for missing parts that might have caused a blockage down the line but come up empty, so at this point I’m at a bit of a loss. Has anyone come across something similar with a blocked high pressure line or faulty steering box? because that’s about all I have left to condemn, other than a dud new pump that’s causing cavitation. I’m not sure if a blockage Post pump would cause such a prominent whirring like not enough fluid is getting to the pump, but I can’t think of much else. It’s also not turning the fluid into lemonade like it would with bad cavitation.

 

just curious, what brand replacement pump did you buy?

 

there is of course the possibility, its not the steering pump making the noise?

 

Likely you have air in the steering box and lines. Did you bleed it? If not, put a small hose on the bleeder screw on top of the steering box, run the other end to the reservoir in the fill port. Start the engine, turn the wheels back and forth till no bubbles in the hose and the noise is gone.

 

the pump is a hobourn oem pump. Truck also does not have ACE

 

as per the original post, I have bled it at the box multiple times. In the end I got about a litre of fluid out of the box to be absolutely certain it was bled. at the same time of course topping up the reservoir. The fluid is air free when it returns to the reservoir