Hey, this is more of an inquiry about my girlfriends car. I work on cars quite often, but I'm not all that familiar with saturns. Her power steering pump whines pretty much all the time but its more of a moderate/low hum. Is this normal for saturns? I've heard another one do this so I really dont know. Recently, the weather here has been very cold (0 or below) and the pump is really loud when the engine is cold. Also, the engine stumbles and hesitates and sometimes nearly stalls. I'm wondering if the two could be related..? If not, is it normal for the power steering pump to hum or have a low whine in these cars? Its done it since she got the car 2 years ago.

Any help is appreciated,

Ben

I had a similar problem with my 92 SL2, and I did end up replacing the power steering pump, but still had the whine. What ended up being my problem was the tensioner pulley. Its located right behind the front passenger tire. At least on my car it is. Try replacing that and see if that helps.

Interesting. We replaced the serpentine belt and tensioner pulley just last year. The whine/hum sound seems to be coming directly from the pump. Fluid is good and the system isnt leaking. Maybe a bearing? Maybe they just make that sound? Like I said, its been doing it for 2 years at least.

I'm guessing then its not related to the engine's hesitation problem in cold weather?

I don't know honestly. My engine seems to stumble a bit when cold if I hit the gas suddenly. Gets a bit worse if I'm turning. It could be a bearing, best option I can think of is just replace the pump. Engine hesitation could be caused by an offset throttle position or clogged EGR valve. Thats all I can really think of. Best of luck and keep us updated on what happens.





Just on a side note, check the belt tension anyway, and look for any cracks or wears in the belt. Better safe than sorry...

Is your car manual? If it is, you might want to let you car warm up a little more. My saturn takes about a half-hour to get warm...but I tried going to work one day letting it warm up 5 minutes and I felt like my engine was going to die. I went into first and tried giving it the normal amount of gas needed to go and it went then slowed down dramatically until I floored it and then shifted to second the samet hing was happening. My friend thought the clutch was too cold and was stalling. That could be your problem just let it warm up a little longer than usual.

Benj,

Year and model of car??

Saturn power steering pumps are not the quietest ones out there....

The squeal at cold temperatures has been around since the early days (memories of my 92 SL2 in Wisconsin) -- I was told it is from a resonance that is temperature dependent. Annoying but never seemed to cause a problem back then....

Tensioner pulley bearings also squeal at the low temps due to insufficient lubrication/thickening of the bearing lubricant....

As for hesitation after cold starts -- give it a few minutes to warm up -- especially if it is a manual. I purposely give it a bit of time to get all the fluids circulating and up in temperature a bit. I do notice that I have to warm up the clutch by intentionally dragging out the shifts with a bit of extra gas in order to get things shifting smoothly.

You may also want to check the ECTS (See other posts on this forum) to be sure you are not runnning overly rich at startup.....(and in general)

Derf

Hey, thanks for the help guys!

My suspicions are leading me towards checking the EGR valve first. The car is a 1994 SL-1. And also, its an automatic. I also just thought I'd clarify that the noise is definitely not a squeal, just a sort of low whine or hum coming from the pump which gets worse when the weather is cold like this (especially on start up) and it seems to take quite a bit of power from the engine when you turn the wheels (at least while the motor is cold). Is warming up these cars recommended then? I know some car manufacturers dont recommend warming them up at idle, but rather to drive them easy when they're cold (like my VW).

Oh, and what would be the best manual for this car? Maybe just a Haynes or...?

I have a Haynes manual and its ok. Doesn't exactly go very indepth on a lot of small parts, so if you can find a Chiltons, I'd try them out.