I purchased a Honda Civic LX-S 2011 a month ago. It has 146,350k miles on it. I did not drive the car much since I purchased it but a week or two after purchasing the car started making a humming or whining noise and a grueling noise while turning. After a few days, the power steering stopped responding and you absolutely had to use force to rotate the steering. I took it to the local Ford dealership and they said they steering wheel pump needs replacement and the remaining power steering fluid needs to be flushed. I took it back home and discovered that the power steering wheel reservoir did not have a cap/seal and it seemed parched dry inside. The previous owner left half a bottle of power steering fluid so I emptied it into the reservoir and the car started to work better and I do not hear the noise while turning. I am thinking about replacing the pump as the dealership said so but before I do so how do i know that the pump has failed. Could it have been caused by depletion of power steering fluid? In that case, if i put a cap/seal and add new power steering fluid, would that solve the problem? Between the car started making noise and the dealership detected the problem, I did not drive it much. However, having half a bottle of steering wheel fluid in the trunk from previous owner makes me think it was an existing problem and the pump replacement might be necessary. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated
Well, it may not need a new pump if it started working good after filling it up with fluid. HOWEVER, you should take it somewhere to flush out the entire power steering system especially since there was no cap on the reservoir (flush all the contaminated fluid out). After getting the system flushed, they need to properly bleed the air out of the system since the pump was running dry.
Why was there no fluid in the first place? Is there a leak somewhere?
After I poured the remaining fluid, I have not seen any leakage but I think the dealership did mention about a leak (not 100% sure) and suggested both flushing and pump replacement. That is where I am stuck at. I want to be sure that there is a pump failure before replacing it. I initially though since the cap was missing, that caused the evaporation of the steering wheel fluid. Thanks for your quick response