Hi, I was directed here from Honda-tech.com to ask Desert Honda:

I was replacing my motor mounts and doing timing belt recently and noticed that the power steering pump suction line (reservoir to pump) had rubbed almost completely thru. I could bend the line and it would start leaking, that's how close it was to losing fluid. So anyway I replaced the hose and ever since then the steering has been sporatic and getting worse. It will steer fine for a few turns and then have absolutely no power assist for a few.
I'm pretty sure I let air into the system so today i bled the whole system with new fluid (Honda specific), but it did not help the issue any. I did notice right after i replaced the line that the pump made abnormal whinning, it's not making much noise anymore, but I'm afraid I may have ruined the pump. I'm pretty sure there is no more air in the line unless it is somehow stuck down at the rack. Any help would be appreciated, especially if anyone knows the complete proper bleeding method. Like, do I need to crack open the lines at the rack to let air out? All I did was unhook one of the return lines from the reservoir, attach clear tubing so I can see what's going on, and then started the car and turned the steering back and forth till all the old fluid was out. I did notice a few bubbles but not as much as I'd like to see come out. Oh and yes this was done in the air and I kept the fluid level topped off so no air got back in there.

Thanks for any help.

edit: here's the link from over there http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread/1687879

 

just make sure that the fluid is at the full mark on the reservoir. make sure that the line is sealed at the pump and the reservior, and then turn the steering wheel hard over 2 cycles. left to right

 

Yeah that's how I bled the system, but it still acts up like it did.

 

If you stirred up dirt in the system, you should check the reservoir bottle. Towards the bottom (under the normal fluid level) there's a fine screen. If that's full of crud it'll starve the pump.

You can clean out the reservoir with hot soapy water. Just make sure you get it completely dry...

 

take the return line off the pump and place it into a 5 gal bucket. turn car on with a friend workng ps back and worth and keep adding fluid to the resivoir until no more air bubbles come out. turn car off, replace line and turn car on and work PS back and forth a few time work work out the remaining bubble in return line.

 

There is no return line on the pump itself. It has a pickup line coming from the reservoir and a pressure line going to the rack. What I did to flush it is locate the return line to the reservoir from the rack and attached clear tubing to this line and ran it to a clear jug. I capped off the hole on the reservoir to keep it from leaking. Then I turned the wheel back and forth a bunch of times keeping the reservoir topped off until all the old fluid was out. I did notice a few air bubbles get leeched out but evidently not all of them, or either my pump was already fried.

 

question,, is there a lot of foam in the reservoir ?? try bleeding it one moew time........

from the reservoir,, disconnect the hose that goes to the oil cooler, sick a smaller hose inside the hose that you disconnected so you can dump the fluid in a container,,
start the car up, make sure it is at idle, turn the steering wheel from lock to lock several times, when no more fluid comes out, stop the engine. reconnect the hose, fill the reservoir, start the car and let it idle, turn the steering wheel from lock to lock several times again .. On all this make sure the frt wheels are raised off the ground..

If you still have a problem after this,,,,, I would chk to see if there are any other leaks and system is sucking air from there......I no other leaks,, you might have to take car to a dealer and have them test the p/s sytem pressure ,, you need a special gauge to do so.

please let us know what happens ..

 

Just to clarify....pull the hose going to the cooler off of the reservoir, cap the reservoir hole i guess, then bleed it out of that line. I have looked over the rest os the system, as far as i can see and it looks fine. The thing is, it NEVER gave me any trouble until i stupidly let the pump suck up that air.

 

pull the hose that goes into the cooler at the cooler pipe..................
You might have sucked in a lot of air into the system and it might take a while for all of it to bleed out ..

 

I have access to a shop that has about every specialty tool made for anything. Where do i check the pressure and what range should i be looking for? thanks alot for your help.