Hey all, so I am going to change out my power steering pump, the first time that I have done this on my 07. What is everyone's thoughts on flushing the fluid as part of this process? Should I do the flush before I change the pump or after? I am guessing that it is probably a good idea to run about a gallon through it since I have read that it holds 4qts.

The reason that I am thinking about changing it is if I am at low RPM, like backing into a parking space, and I start to turn the wheel, the Jeep starts to stall out. If i give it more gas or straighten the wheel the problem seems to go away. I do get a slight squeal if I max out the steering wheel. Also, on occasion, when this happens there is a smell. I think it is a fuel smell but the wife disagrees about it being fuel. I looked this up online, and what i read calls out a power steering pressure switch, but as far as I can tell the JK does not have this, so I thought it was something in the pump itself. Any thoughts because if it is not this I am stumped.

Thanks for looking!
Chris

 

At 268,000 miles on my 2007 JK, I've never changed out the power steering pump fluid--except for the limited amount when I replaced a blown pump. That pump blew because I was using the front lockers and steering hard. The plastic impeller inside of them are notorious for that. Anyway, while changing out various fluids is recommended, I've never heard of that for the PS system. Maybe I'm learning something here! Regardless, one thing I should mention is that it's necessary to bleed the PS pump after swapping it. If you follow the service manual procedure, which I did, then you require a special tool to seal off the fill cap area of the pump and apply the pressure. I didn't have that, so used a rubber stopped with a hole and tube shoved through it. And the opening size is odd, so had to trim down that rubber stopper. After I posted about that here (this is many moons ago, BTW), other folks chimed in that there are easier ways to affect that bleed. So, you might do some research on that to see what you can learn.

But looking at your complaint--near stall while turning, squeal while turning hard, sometimes with a smell--I'm not convince that your power steering pump is the problem. Recommend that first you check the serpentine belt. Second, check everything it runs. Most especially, check the tensioner and idler pulleys, and your water pump. Any of them could be binding up, causing the belt to slow down, reducing the output from all the components it spins. I had my water pump blow while in Chloride Canyon, NM. Symptoms to me driving were battery warning, hard steering, smoke from under the hood. Turned out that it so damaged the serpentine belt that it tore it off--we found it back up the road a couple hundred yards. You can see that in this video, if interested (at 9 minutes if not forwarded automatically) ...