Ran power steering pump with empty reservoir for 1 sec

Hey guys, I did a dumb thing today.

I've heard folks complain about growling/whining power steering pumps and leaking steering racks. My truck has neither - silent and dry. So, to preserve that 220k mile winning streak, today I got fired up to do a few quick drain-and-fills of the power steering reservoir while cleaning the garage. Basted out the old, filled up with fresh Valvoline Maxlife Dex III ATF, fired up the engine, turned the wheel lock to lock a few times to circulate. Rinse and repeat, until I got distracted by my podcast, and -OOPS!- fired it up without refilling the reservoir, and it sucked in some air and made a bad growling noise. Stupid.

I shut off the engine immediately, so it only ran "dryish" for about 1 second. Pretty sure it sucked some air down, because there was a small amount of light pink foam formed at the top of the reservoir after I topped it up again. I finished filling the reservoir to proper level, and ran it once more, turning wheel lock to lock once or twice.

Now it's making a whine from the power steering pump that occurs whenever I'm turning the wheel. Have only tested at idle so far. I stopped there for the day to figure out whether I'm in trouble and what to do next.

Did I mess up? Tell me I'm OK! What should I do now?

 

No
You're okay
Drive it

You'll have to cycle the system with several turns to get all of the air out. May take a day or so. When I replaced my rack, It took about 2 days for the system to fully bleed. I can't say that the whine will go away, but you'll be fine.

 

OK whew! Thanks @The Black Mamba.

Others with experience to share? Any air purge procedure to do other than drive it to get the air out?

 

An old college girlfriend of mine had a Jeep Compass that the power steering pump was howling like Chewbacca on the first time I rode in it. She said it had been like that for 4 years or more. It was bone dry when I added some fluid, it quieted down and worked fine for years after that.

That car would overheat the CVT fluid on every long highway drive in the summer heat and leave her sitting on the side of the road until it cooled down though.

 

IIRC, the last power steering system flush and bleed I did you don't start the engine. Just get the front wheels off the ground and cycle the wheel lock to lock until bubbles stop in reservoir.

 

Air in the system sounds terrible. You need to bleed it properly to get rid of the air. Lift the front wheels off the ground and turn lock to lock slowly multiple times. There's even a vacuum tool you are supposed to put on the reservoir to help bring bubbles to the suface, but not many people have that tool (I bought it - didn't seem to help much).

By the way, I drove about 10 miles once without fluid and my pump and it survied. I do'nt recommend it, but your 1 minute without fluid probably didn't do any damage.

 

Did you see this?

https://www.tundras.com/threads/power-steering-flush-how-to.85254/

 

Yeah, you don't need to start the truck when doing the flush. Turning lock to lock with the front wheels off the ground pushes the fluid out.

 

I used to add fluid to my PS reservoir when the pump started screaming at me. Did this for a year or so before I could afford to replace the leaking hose. The fluid got so hot that it melted the reservoir a little bit. It still pumped fine and was fairly quiet once it wasn't running dry. These PS pumps are pretty indestructible.

 

Haha, OK sounds like many others have abused their PS pumps much more than I and been fine. Glad to hear I probably didn't cause any damage.

Update: I lifted the front end and turned the wheel slowly lock to lock many times to help purge (with engine off). This seemed to quiet things down - I will check reservoir level and test it out if I have time today.

Thanks all

 

Oh, and I checked out that thread on PS flush - very nice step by step! I'll do that next time. Normally I shy away from anything that says "flush" in favor of a "drain and fill" tactic, but that seems like a very reasonable process with others having good results. Cheers

 

Just like with toilets, "flush" is not a bad word. It's all in how you do it.

You should be doing regular flushes of your oil, i.e. oil change. And for your diff(s). Flushing is normal.

 

Posting back to close the loop on this in case it helps anyone with this issue in the future.

The guys were right - this was no big deal. Everything seems smooth, quiet, and normal after doing the lock-to-lock procedure with front end in the air.

Thanks folks!