Accord Gen7 P/S noise – the real cause

[tony]

I haven been going down the “noisy p/s pump” road for about 3 months now.
I was out of town, so wife had to take it to a mechanic.

1 – a good independent Honda mechanic says “try the o-ring” fix. I asked him about old hoses – he said he had never seen the hoses be the cause. He replaced the O-rings. It kinda worked, but came back in a month.

2 – I replaced the pump with a rebuilt one. Kinda worked, but came back. ( I threw out a perfectly good original Honda pump)

3 – Replaced the return hoses with $7 worth of bulk hose and a few screw hose clamps. Just to try it.

Worked. I was not happy with how hard the large diameter return hose from the reservoir to the pump was, and with the constant tension hose clamps, there is no way to tighten anything up when the hoses become hard. I assume that pulling them on and off “re-seals” things for a little while, but once they get cold again, the air leak re-starts.

All this noise about O-rings and shaft seals and bad pumps is a lot of over thinking the problem. Hoses get hard and take a set – they leak. After 10 years, they don’t owe you anything.

Change out the hoses and turn lock to lock a few times to purge the air. Done.

Topic

[college man]

Thanks for the tip.

[Author]

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