I have a 2007 Freestar SEL with about 190k miles on it, a little over a year ago I replaced the power steering pump and had a shop flush the fluid because the original pump was making some noise. It was more preventative than anything, I just wanted it done before something failed. I have put probably 15k miles on the van with the new pump and now it suddenly had a power steering loss, I'd say there is < 5% power there, while parked or driving less than 15mph it takes a lot of strength to turn the wheel. The fluid is still topped off in the reservoir, no leaks, there is some pump noise when turning the wheel but not really anything more than normal. I haven't been able to it jacked up to look at the rack,etc. but I don't think there is any damage or kinks in the lines. Could there be some air in the system or some other issues to consider, or is it most likely that my new pump just failed?

 

If it worked fine for the first 15,000 miles and then got tired, I would be very suspicious of the PS pump. Sometimes aftermarket pumps are OK and sometimes they are not .

 

You could also have a worn steering shaft U-Joint. This is a none serviceable/greasable joint and when worn out, will make it seem like the P/S is bad and hard to turn. Spray the U-Joint down with some PB Blaster or such and see if it goes away. The joint is right above where it goes into the rack and gets all the crud.

 

Yeah it must be the pump, I checked and it’s still under warranty so I’m gong to get a replacement and see if that takes care of it. Just odd that there was no sign of an issue before this, usually they leak, squeal, or seize up

 

Thanks for the tip, I’ll check that out too. With a quick visual inspection it seemed ok but it won’t hurt to add some grease

 

I had the U-Joint go bad on our 04 Freestar. Was fine on a 750 mile return trip. Next morning, went to go to work and it acted like the P/S was bad. Took cap off of the P/S reservoir and seen fluid movement, so I knew the pump was pumping. So I looked for mechanical issues such as binding and found the U-Joint (sealed & greasless units). Mine also looked fine, but I sprayed it anyways with some PB Blaster and it worked fine for 2-3 days and went right back to hard steering. Was easier and cheaper to replace that a pump.

 

Thanks for sharing that experience, knowing the u-joint caused that much of a difference for you I will definitely give that a try first, it is definitely easy enough to test. I did raise the front end and turn side to side multiple times with the reservoir cap off to try to get any air out of the system, it seems to have given up some air bubbles during that process but I also could see that fluid was pumping. I'll grease the u-joint and see what that does. worst case is I need to do a warranty replacement on the PS pump if the u-joint isn't the issue.

 

I tried greasing the u-joint but unfortunately it didn't make a difference. So I got a new power steering pump under warranty and swapped them out, and sure enough that did it! The pump just failed, one thing that was interesting was that the new pump was quieter, I noticed some whining from the old pump right from the start but that can be somewhat normal, in this case it must have been a sign that there was a problem with it. It's all back together and on the road again

 

Glad you got it fixed. Even though it's a "MINI" van, the Freestar is still a heavy unit and hard to turn with no power assist.

 

Indeed! And thank you for the input and help with diagnosing the issue, now I also have a steering u-joint that's probably better off than it was before