Power Steering Fail

[174bpm]

Was driving home on the freeway tonight and after I exited I realized I had no power steering. Pulled over at a gas station down the street from my house and I could see it had all dumped out on the pan. I've never had a problem with it, except a leaky reservoir until today. Checked fluid regularly. Have no idea when it started leaking on the drive and I didn't hear or feel anything different until I slowed down. Drove to my house about 2 blocks away and put it up on the ramps. Found the leak in the high pressure hose and ordered it immediately. Gonna do a flush before installing it, but my question is how likely is it that I need to order a new pump?

[cobra]

likely the pump is fine because it wasn't running dry and was still covered in oil. I would probably just replace that high pressure line and then monitor it.

[Thoglan]

Agreed the pump is probably fine as long as there was some oil. You will hear a whine when you turn the wheel if the pump is bad. You could also open it up and check the internals of the pump for damage if you wanted to be overkill. Recently wrecked my PS pump when the reservoir melted on track and plastic got pulled through it which scored the internal rotor. Even then there was only a slight whine under load so they are pretty robust.

[174bpm]

I was hoping that was the case but prepared for the worst case scenario. Either way thanks dude.

[TexaZ3]

Pump is 100% fine. I had that same thing happen to me on a trip to Austin few years ago, and I drove home to DFW for like 300 miles without PS. Once I replaced the hose and put new fluid in, the car was fine for years after.

[174bpm]

So just as a follow up to this thread, I did end up replacing the line and all has been "sort of" well since. The pump sounds mostly normal with only a very light whining when turning the wheel. However after checking the fluid a few times I can see tiny metal flakes in the reservoir when shining a flashlight. I'm assuming this pump is toast. I definitely don't want screw up the rack and pinion so should I just buy a new pump now before things get worse? Appreciate the help!

[bigjae46]

I would recommend replacing the pump and the reservoir.

[L0okitzRaj]

On topic, are there rebuild kits for these PS pumps? Looks like they have kits for the older pumps, but not the newer ones.