Forgive me as a newbie for adding yet another power steering pump noise post, but hopefully this may assist someone else. I recently picked up my first 2008 Freelander 2 with around 106K on the clock after a bit of haggling with a car dealer and taking a big gamble as it had one hell of a whine coming from under the bonnet.

There are many posts on here about power steering pump noises, but none of them really applied to what I was getting, so I thought I would try and explain my own symptoms.

Starting the engine from cold, around 1500 to 2500 revs would give me a very nasty whine inside the cabin that seemed to go up and down perfectly in time with the rev counter, I could hear the diesel lump in the background increasing in speed, but this whine sounded much more responsive with the throttle. Driving along, the noise would rise and fall with every little gearchange, but because it also happened when standing still and blipping the throttle, I dismissed any association with the auto box. After about 10 minutes of driving, it fell silent and was good for the rest of the day.

Now where my fault differed from most that I have read on here, (and beleive me, I`ve read them all !!) is that the noise did not increase or decrease with turning the steering wheel from lock to lock, and neither did I have any stiffness in steering either. It was only when listening to the pump through a stethoscope that I could confirm where the noises were actually coming from.

I stumbled across a truly excellent youtube clip on here about a blocked filter and a guide for replacing the fluid reservoir, and it seemed a logical place to start.



I`m pleased to say that after a new reservoir from Roger Youngs in Cornwall and a couple of litres of genuine Landrover power steering fluid proved to be a £50 gamble that has really paid dividends.

I now have a silent steering pump and peace of mind.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed in the past to writing about this type of noise, because reading up on this over the last few weeks has prompted me to take the gamble and buy a car with a known fault, in the hope that I could fix it.