Or, spray some water on the belt or conditioner to see if that stops the squeaking. At least then you have a culprit.

I don't know much about the inline filter flow rate, but that is what I would consider, that the pump is not getting enough fluid. Perhaps the filter in your reservoir is clogged, I know you cleaned it. Mine was beyond cleaning so I poked a couple holes in it. I figured with all new components there was little risk of dirt ruining the system.

Another way to bleed it is to just crack the bleeder screw with the engine off and let gravity drain it, once you see fluid close it. That worked wonders for me.

 

I don’t think it’s the belt or tension. It only squeaked once and that was before I changed the pump originally. It was that symptom, after hearing the pump whine a few times, that had me decide to put in a new pump. With 120,000 miles I figured it was time anyway.

I also poked a hole in my reservoir filter.

I’m hoping I got a bad pump. 😬

 

My vote is a bad pump. I went through 2 cheap aftermarket pumps before getting a good one (from O'Reilly's this time instead of eBay). Since the AutoZone one has a lifetime warranty, get them to warranty it out and get a new one from them (for free) first and try that.

 

I have a feeling this is also the case but my feelings at times have been wrong when it comes to wrenching

The new pump is on the way. The damned fluid is so expensive is the biggest thing. I will have almost $200 on fluid by the time I swap out the pump again.

 

Why are you not re-using fluid? Catch it, filter it, and re-use it.

 

A fun fact: if you run the pump with air in it, some of it, thanks to the pressure, will dissolve in the fluid and will take for ever to fizzle back out. You might need to bleed it more than once.

And just for s and g there is a whole post in the stickies about cleaning out your steering system.

 

I had to store my truck for 6 months while traveling, so the new PS pump had to wait to go on. Just wanted to be sure to close this out.

The problem was a bad remanufactured pump after all. I bought the second pump from Atlantic British and it worked perfectly. I should have initially listened to my inner voice saying to spend the extra $100 on the better pump.

I also installed an in-line filter, as the screen in the bottom of the reservoir was shot.

Thanks for all the help and input!

 

Thanks for updating us

 

I got a question about the filter that I used and thought I’d update here for anyone else with an issue.

My chief concern was maintaining flow rate, and there were some cheap plastic ones that may have worked, but I decided to go with this one with a magnet.

I had to install an extra loop of line, but it’s worked out well. I definitely feel better with the filter in there.

Also just to clarify: Had I not accidentally poked a hole in the in-reservoir “filter” I wouldn’t have installed this external one.

To anyone doing this job be sure to remove the reservoir and clean the filter by back flushing, shaking the tank, etc. I tried using the big syringe/pump and that’s how I ended up poking a hole in it.