PS Pump Whine
 

Here's a good one. It has been getting (finally) cold around here lately, and cold for here is like in the 30's. The past couple of days after work, when I start the car, you can hear a loud whining from under the hood. Just like if the power steering pump was being run dry. there is plenty of fluid in the reservoir and it stops after a few minutes of driving. The rack is new (installed last summer). Does not do this when parked inside (heated garage), only after it has been sitting outside in the cold. You think the pump is on its way out?

You sure it's the p.s. pump and not the alternator complaining about the cold?

oh....well...the alternator is new. It just sounds exactly like a power steering pump with no fluid. Turning the wheels makes the sound change. I will verify tomorrow. Supposed to get in the 20's.

Up here, extra noises on a cold morning is considered "normal".
It was a balmy zero degrees this morning, and the under-hood complaint department was open for a minute or so.

hmmm...may be normal then. This is my first winter with her. She is almost 20....

sounds like air in the system. may be the seal dosnt like the cold.

Maybe, but more for my frigid temps, as opposed to yours. A power steering pump whining likely means there's either air, or the pump is cavitating. Engine fluids get thicher and don't move very well initially when it's severely cold out, which is what can cause the vanes in the pump to cavitate and make noise (cap'n craby knows what that is, relating to a prop). If the fluid hasn't been changed in a while, do that first before throwing the pump to the dogs. I use a syringe to suck the old fluid out of the reservoir, fill and drive a short while, then do it again.

This is actually fairly common. First seriously cold day of the year we would get a half a dozen calls about power steering pump noise. I never really dug into why the failing pumps show up on cold days. Allow some extra time to let the pump warm up before driving. If you check the fluid it is going to be almost foamy and driving the car with all that air in the system will cause the pump to fail quickly. Most of the time the pump will last the rest of this winter as long as you allow the pump to warm up but you will want to replace before next winter, assuming it does not fail completely before that. At some point the noise will stop going away as it warms up that when you know the pump is done.
I think Craby is right about the internal seal. When I would get the pumps with this type of failure I did not see metal in the lines that would require flushing of the rack and lines.