My 2001 Accord ex-L V6 has a fairly loud whine at cold temperatures when the steering wheel is turned. This does not impact driving at all but it sounds very concerning. Any ideas as to what may be causing this?

 

Usually this is caused by air being sucked into PS fluid at the PS Pump suction inlet. Look at fluid returning to the PS reservoir. If its foaming, the air is the cause of the noise.

Fix is to replace oring on the suction inlet fitting. Check DIY forum, but I'm not sure if there's a post for this repair. Search should find something. This is a common problem on V6 engines. I recently had to do this on my Acura MDX 3.5V6 (very similar to your engine).

Oring is available at Honda and If you look at PS inlet, you'll see the fitting is held in place w/ a single 6mm bolt (10mm socket). I managed to replace mine w/o removing serpentine belt.

Note, if you have a fluid leak, the fluid level can go low and also cause this problem.

good luck

 

There's a screen submerged in the fluid inside the reservoir. If that's getting plugged with crud, it can make the pump-suction tube have a bit of vacuum. Then it's even more likely to suck air in wherever it can leak.