So last autocross race I went to, after a hard set of turns, my car felt super hard to turn and a little sloppy. I thought I blew out a tire or something.

After reading some posts, I thought it could've been the steering bushings, so I decided to order a set and put it in before I do another autocross/track day.

I didn't have a reoccurance until about 2 months ago when I had just started up the car and was starting to pull out of a parking spot. I know my idles a bit low, and I noticed that when I tried to turn the car, it was very difficult, I throttled up a bit and it worked fine.

This morning, coming home from work, the car was pretty cold, and I noticed the difficulty steering. I throttled up a bit (not much only like 1200-1500 rpm) and it didn't make any difference. The power steering pump was making noticeably loud whining noise (the hydraulic sound you normally hear but much louder).

I looked at the pump, the fluid's full and there's no leakage. The V-belt is tight and intact.

Does this sound like the pump's just going out or something else?

 

Sounds like the pump is going out.

 

yeah that's what I'm thinking

 

You know what? My nephew-in laws 04 sti has a similar problem to this. When the car is cold, it would be hard to turn, but once the car was warmed up, the problem goes away. This is what we found out; when the engine is cold and you are trying to turn the wheel, the pulley all of a sudden skips constant rotation and locks up. You can clearly see the pulley stop in mid track, then turn again for a little bit, then lock up again. That affects the movement of the belt. It might be the pump.

When you turn your steering wheel, does it seem hard to turn and feels very rigid like abs kicking in on your steering?

 

Yeah, it feels exactly like that. But when I was doing autocross, it was hot, not cold, so I think its just the pump.

 

Yea it might be just the pump itself then. My nephews sti has that happen only when the engine is cold, once it warms up it drives fine. Hmm..... similar problem on both 04 models. Im leaning towards bad pump too then. Is this a common problem on the 04's?

 

did you check the PS fluid levels?

 

Im sure he did, and the other 04 sti I mentioned was also checked too. Topped off at full.

 

Yeah its topped, I'm considering trying a ps fluid change to see if it helps, if not its new pump time