HI,

I have a 2008 fiesta zetec s 1.6 petrol. A pal of mine who owns and runs a very good garage changed my cambelt and water pump and showed me the high pressure line for the power steering was weeping. At this point there had been no noise coming from the steering. He replaced the offending line (which costs an arm and a leg from ford!) Replaced the fluid with new correct atf fluid and made sure there were no leaks. The fluid has never dropped below the correct level, but the steering whines and groans a lot from even the slightest turn of the wheels. I removed the cap and turned the wheels several times to see if any air was trapped, which there isn't.

The noise is fairly significant inside the cabin, but you can't really hear it from outside or under the bonnet. He said the pump looked to be fairly recent, does this sound like the pump is buggered? Or could it go on like this for a long time to come?

Cheers.

 

I had this on my old Mondeo. There is a gauze filter inside the reservoir that had clogged up. I replaced the reservoir and that cured it, maybe try cleaning it out if it's blocked.

 

Sorry I haven't got photo bucket, do all the ford reservoirs have filters in them? Or only the mondeo.

Cheers,

 

Common for the st pumps to whine really loud when there buggered. Something to do with the bearing inside it i think? Think the problem with the st is the fluid gets hot and boils then the fluid turns black and buggers the pump. Not sure if its the same with the zs?

How did he remove the old fluid? Did he start the car to push the fluid out?

 

Thanks for your reply. He drained it properly, the fluid is cherry Red, I know my old puma used to boil the fluid black quite quickly though. I wonder if the pump just ran dry before the pipe was replaced and now it's buggered? While it drive fine and the level is still at max I think I will just drive on until it goes all together.