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I'm new to this forum. I used to own a Subaru Impreza Turbo Classic (2000) for 7 years then sold it for a range of different vehicles. After a gap of 10 years I recently bought a 2005 Subaru WRX.
I've only had the car 3 months and driven less then 1,000 miles. It has 62,000 miles and a full stamped service book up to 60,000 miles (not all Subaru dealership).
I recently took the car on a bit of a road trip, notching up 600 miles in 3 days. I noticed there was some slight judder under braking at high speeds, which is probably down to the front discs starting to show wear, I don't think they have been changed in a long while.
After my road trip I left the WRX parked up for about 1 week, when I came to start it up yesterday I noticed the Power Steering was 'grabbing' whilst the car was stationary it almost seems like its resisting turning the steering wheel. Whilst the car has been parked up the outside temperature has dropped to about -1 on a few nights maybe -3 on one occasion.
I've checked the power steering fluid level which is at normal topped up level. I haven't actually inspected the fluid, it looks darkish from the outside. Could the cold weather have caused the power steering fluid which is already a bit contaminated to congeal and start causing this issue?
This steering issue happens when the car is stationary or at low speed. Once the engine is warmed up it seems to lessen but is still there. I don't consider it safe to drive in this condition. Searching forums a lot of advice seems to be to replace the steering fluid, is that the recommended action or is there a deeper cause to this issue?
I have uploaded a video to Youtube of me starting the car when its cold and turning the wheel lock to lock. You will notice after the first few goes it starts turning more smoothly but still has resistance at the extreme locks. You may be able to hear a little whining sound whilst I'm turning the wheel, could be the steering pump?
Its strange because its not the first time I've left the car standing in the cold for over a week. When I went on the road trip I didn't notice any issues, I even met a friend who has the same car during my road trip and he drove it and he didn't notice anything. The issue just seems to have started after its been parked up in the cold.
The tyres are virtually brand new, I had a full set of Goodyears put on shortly after buying the car.
I think that will be my first course of action. I'll see if that makes a difference. Anybody know approximately how much fluid is needed to fully replace whats there already plus any recommendation on what fluid and where to buy it.
Okay so I've been away on holiday. Came back today and ready to replace the steering fluid with the new stuff I ordered from amazon. Tried the remote central locking, nothing, opened the door with the key tried the ignition, nothing, even the digital clock dead and the car wouldn't start at all. Turned out I had left an interior light on and the battery drained out. I called the AA to get it started the AA guy came and used his power starter to get the car started all good so far.
Then he did a test which detected the alternator charge was hardly charging the battery at all. He advised a new alternator.
Here's where it gets interesting, I asked him about my power steering issue and I turned the wheel from lock to lock to demonstrate the binding sensation and whining noise I could hear. He pointed out the whining noise, which I had only listened to whilst sitting in the car previously and thought was from the steering pump, was actually coming from the alternator which I could now pinpoint clearly as coming from the alternator myself with the bonnet open and someone else turning the steering wheel whilst I was stood outside the car. Turns out the belt drives for the power steering and the alternator are somehow connected. His opinion was change the alternator and the power steering issue will go away as well.
My tuppence on this is that when the steering started grabbing on my car it was because the p/s belt was goosed. It was most noticeable in the morning when the belt was cold.
I'd suggest checking that, and putting a new one on if required. Quick & easy job, and you're as well doing the alternator belt while you're there because it's the same pulley adjuster iirc. Belts are cheap.
FWIW, I noticed my steering grabbing at the start of the week & intended to deal with it at the weekend....then about 3 days later the belt s##t itself altogether and I had to nurse the car home with no power steering.
Heres a video clip of the noise the alternator is making whilst the steering wheel is being turned lock to lock. Below the video link is the voltage reading of the alternator.
I'll probably get the belts replaced along with the alternator. Any difference between getting the belts from Subaru directly or from a supplier such as Europarts?
Check belt tension first, then change fluid and small o ring on top of pump; this perishes and lets air in system, costs peanuts. New ps pump last option.
Check your steering uj joint it connects the column to the rack.
They sometimes go in the way that uj Joint will not have any free movement any more.
Steering will go hard as if the pas is defect and sometimes gets noisy
Before you spend loads of money, the alternator may not actually be broken...
They are smart charge on newer vehicles, the problem being if no load is sensed then the voltage remains low. Try turning on the headlights and see if the voltage jumps up.
The squeak is likely just the extra load the power steering adds making the belt slip??
The bearing in the alternator isn't likely to make a squeak in my opinion.
I'd try a new belt, and tension is correctly and see it the problem goes away.
Thanks for all the members who have offered suggestion and tips. I've had a chance to recharge the battery and put it back in the car. It started up just fine so I decided to tackle the power steering/alternator issues.
I've been doing a lot of YouTube research and along with the comments from members on this forum I think the AA guy with best intentions sent me down a blind alley. I don't think there is anything wrong with my alternator.
This is a video of the alternator noise as I turn the steering wheel lock to lock :
Before anyone says its not the Alternator and maybe the Power Steering pump or a pulley or a belt. Both myself and the AA guy put our ears to the engine bay while the other turned the wheel and we both agreed the noise is coming out of the alternator..this doesn't necessarily mean the alternator is bad...Read on...
I bought a multimeter from Amazon and conducted some tests, the battery without the engine running shows a healthy voltage of 12.9. What happens is that when the car is started up the voltage dips down to 12.56 (see video 1) and this makes it appear as though the alternator is not charging the battery (which lead the AA guy to the conclusion the alternator is bad) but as members mentioned on this thread and I discovered for myself as soon as I put the side lights on the voltage goes back to a healthy figure of over 14.2. (see video 2). When I put the main headlights on and switched the heating on high the voltage is still above 13.4 (see video 3).
Using the suction pump I extracted the fluid that was in the reservoir, it came out pretty black and I poured in half the can of the Seafoam cleaner, and turned the steering wheel lock to lock for a good 30 minutes
Then I extracted out the fluid again and put in the new fluid and turned the wheel lock to lock a few times again
I repeated this procedure of extracting and replacing with new fluid another couple of times until the fluid coming out was not black anymore then I took the car for a drive.
The difference is significant there is no longer a whining sound or binding whilst I am turning the steering wheel. Only if I hold the wheel on full lock can I induce the noise and its very low now and I think once the new fluid works its way fully into the power steering system even that will go away.
The takeaway for me is that old or low power steering fluid will make your power steering stick and bind and make your alternator work harder probably since the power steering pump is drawing more power from it and that makes the alternator work harder and whine, thats just my theory I don't know exactly how it works. Also my Subaru seem to not be actively charging the battery whilst driving unless you start using accessories such as lights or heating, this seems to be the case for Subaru's generally.
Incidentally, I did find a used alternator for a ej20 engine on eBay advertised at £35. I made a bid and it turns out the seller was a WRX enthusiast and said because it needed cleaning up I could have it for just the cost of the postage. In fact he actually sent me not one but two used alternators, both grimy and dirty as hell. I've given one of them a good going over with a de-greaser and its come up pretty decent so not a bad result, I got two used alternators for £10 postage and spent £6 on de-greaser spray. I may if I have time take apart the casing on one of them spray paint it red and have a go at installing it one weekend.
UPDATE: So I just went back to do another job on the WRX which was to replace a headlight bulb, had to remove the battery to get to it comfortably, this is 3 hours since I replaced the power steering fluid.
I changed the bulb no issues and replaced the battery then I started the car up and tried the power steering again...its back to how it was when I first posted on the forum
Steering wheel is binding and resisting turning, the alternator is squealing like a cat.....I'm now at a genuine loss.
The battery reading are still all good
I've changed the power steering fluid, so it can't be that
I can't see how it could be the belts since just 3 hours ago it was all working smooth.
I'm at a loss, I can't understand how just a few hours ago it was all perfectly fine and now its gone in sucky mode again ???
I guess the other thing to look at is the bottom pulley. THere is a rubber bit in the middle that joins the inner to the outer. Some people have had these break up I think and might be making a squeak under load.
Heres a video of me checking the belt. I'm not exactly sure how much tension the belt should have, so in the video I just pull it and thats about as far as it goes.
I took another a look at the alternator/power steering belt. This time I got my son to turn the steering wheel whilst I observed what was going on. I couldn't get a good video since the light had faded too much BUT from what I saw the belt was slipping on the pulley to the left of the alternator, which I guess is what is driving the power steering pump, this was noticeable when he was turning the wheel and it was making a very low scraping noise, had to really listen for it , because it was masked by the alternator squealing at the same time.
So it could be the existing belt is not on tight enough or is worn out, I will wait for better light tomorrow and try tightening it up or replacing it altogether seems like its a fairly straight forward procedure according to YouTubers.
I'll try and get a video of the belt slipping in the morning. I'm not sure why it would just slip on that pulley and not elsewhere?
Still hoping its not the power steering pump itself.
This is a photo of the belt I took off, I turned it inside out to show the wear it has.
You can see it was pretty cracked and worn out, so was definitely in need of replacing.
With the new belt the power steering is working as smooth as silk. Absolutely no noises from the alternator, no binding no sticking, the steering wheel goes full lock to lock no issues. The power steering pulley is not sticking. Seems like its completely fixed
Given my experiences if people are suffering similar power steering symptoms this is how I would approach it...
1. Check the power steering fluid.. is it low? is it dirty?
In both cases its worth flushing it out, because when you buy new fluid, even to top up its more than enough in the bottle to completely replace your existing fluid, all you need for the task of replacing is a suction pump, you can add SeaFoam additive in the process to give a more thorough clean.
If that doesn't fix it try step 2.
2. Check the alternator/power steering belt... is it slack? is it worn?
If its not worn but just slack then tighten it, the procedure to tighten is similar to the one to replace it.
If its worn then replace it, I bought a Gates Power Steering/Alternator belt from eBay from ICP for £10 + postage and replaced my worn belt.
A little tip for getting the new belt on, put it around the top two pulleys first as they have border rims the belt sits within. The bottom pulley (I think its the crankshaft pulley), doesn't have these rims. Doing it this way you simply seat the belt in the top two pulleys and then slide the belt onto the bottom pulley. If you try and do the bottom pulley first, you won't be able to pull the belt over the rims of the top pulleys as the there is not enough play in the belt to allow that to happen.
Thanks for all the advice and tips it was really useful.
07 February 2018, 04:29 PM
2005 Subaru WRX power steering binding
