Youd hear a bad bearing on the power steering pump pulley. When power steering systems are low on fluid they make loud obvious groan/whine sounds when turning the wheel. If you heard neither, and the pulley didnt wobble at all when checked, dont bother replacing... yet.



When holding the steering wheel all the way to either side where it stops its normal to hear a groan, although its not something you should do normally and Ive read it isn't good for the steering system.


You said you flushed the fluid a year ago so it should be fine. If you've ever driven a car without power steering, its HEAVY. Really heavy. If your fluid is dark after 1 year, that's a bit concerning, as power steering fluid almost never has to be changed if there is no leak or contamination; it's a closed system.



I would first check your tire pressures and make sure they're in the 30's PSI range, no higher than 40. Could be your tires are simply low.

 

Thank you CorollaLE. Yes, the pulley didn't wobble and there weren't any loud super obvious noises. I just call them generally call them the moans and creaks for a nearly 13 year old car.

I know what no power steering feels like.....it wasn't that heavy but obviously heavier than usual. I wouldn't call the fluid "dark" but its definitely darker than when I had put it in a year ago. The valvoline maxlife to me tends to be a darker red to begin with so it didn't worry me too much. I guess in my mind I also changed the little u bend in the return hose when I flushed it last. Even though I flushed it at the time, perhaps the new hose has some black rubber wearing into the fluid.

I did buy new tires (bridgestone something or other from costco) about a month ago. I will certainly check the pressure. I do tend to like a few extra psi than what they usually put in. I think their default is 30psi. I usually go for 32-34. Hopefully that will help some as well with the firmer rubber meeting the road.

 

Where did you get the new U-hose? Did you get it from Chrysler/Dodge? Just wondering, because as far as I know, Toyota will not sell the U-hose by itself. You have to buy the whole line, which is over $100.


BTW, I have 357K miles on my 2004 Corolla with the original PS pump. I've flushed out the fluid 2-3 times and have never had a problem other than my U-hose seeps and it's very dirty/oily around there.

 

John Anthony, what kind of fluid did you flush with?
I also flushed mine with maxlife about a year ago and now the steering is feeling very heavy. I'm beginning to suspect it may be fluid related. I'm going try flushing with something else and see how that feels.

 

Yeah, thats the same experience I had. I could only find the entire return line as a whole piece but I didn't really want to take apart that much at the time if I didn't need to....and the whole return line was expensive.

It wasn't urgent because mine was like yours, wet and very slightly weeping so everytime I went into an auto parts store I would ask about that U bend line. It was always the same answer about buying the whole thing until I ran into a very helpful woman at o'reilly one day. She showed me the same picture on her computer and I told her I didn't want to spend money to buy the whole thing. I pointed at her computer and told her I only wanted the rubber u bend. She looked at it some more, clicked on a few things, went into the back and looked through their stockroom. She came back and told me she thinks this "bulk transmission hose" would work in that application. The package was a little damaged. She told me take this piece of string, measure the amount you need, bring it back and she would cut it for me since she used a sharp pipe cutter. I don't remember what size the hose was but it worked great! And it was only about five dollars. Be sure to replace the clamps as well. You can get them less than a dollar. I kept the rest of the package of bulk hose in case I need to replace it again. I'll go see if I can find the bag.

 

There was another thread on this Forum with a member who said that Chrysler/Dodge has this same U-hose and it can be purchased by itself, without requiring the purchase of a whole assembly.

 

Below is a photo of the bulk transmission line O'reilly helped picked for me. It worked great for the u bend in the PS return line.

I also bought new generic clamps that were starting to corrode. They were really cheap. I haven't had a problem with that u bend yet. It's been about a year.

 

I found the info for the U-hose, which is from forum member Invader :


Mopar part # MR453656

$5.19 retail from your local Dodge dealer. You might also find this at a Mitsubishi dealer, as Chrysler and Mitsubishi were in bed together at one point. Same part # for Mitsubishi I believe.

https://www.moparpartsgiant.com/parts/mopar-hose-t-m-oil-cooler-line~mr453656.html

Photos: https://www.ebay.com/itm/MR453656-G...COOLER-LINE/182717637030?epid=1526292558&hash=item2a8ad1e1a6:g:TSQAAOSwX99ZnmVF

 

i always spend the little extra and get the proper parts and fluid, my matrix 270000km, flushed the p/s fluid once at toyota, still no problems yet, i would suspect fluid first, then check the parts that were changed, did u change all this because of regular maintenance, when did it start happening, before or after changing all this?

 

FYI - After having maxlife in there for a year my fluid was very dark and the steering was heavy. Did a complete flush with Redline full synthetic and it felt normal again. Not sure if there's something going on with the pump and it was just a coincidence that the maxlife was in there. I'll see how the Redline does.

 

Probably just a coincidence. I've also used Redline ATF D4 in the PS and it works good too. Redline ATF D4 is T-IV and is what you put in the PS and Redline ATF D6 is WS.