[Dante]

2008 WRB, 5,800 miles, stock + AP (93 oct map).

When the car is hot, I'm hearing a noise from the front end when turning hard. Sounds like a power steering whine. First noticed it turning into my street but this weekend it was really bad when driving hard. No feeling from the steering wheel that I can tell, just the whine.

Knowledgable WRX'r suggested it was a steering rack bushing and that it was common to hear a whine in the prev. gen WRX/STi's because of them. Any thoughts?

I'm taking it to Suby this afternoon for warranty and I'll post up the results from their diagnostic. Just wanted to make a record of this and see if anyone else has noticed it.

[waktasz]

Mine does it too. There's a thread about it here somewhere as well.

[Dante]

Never found the other thread, sorry.

Took it into my dealer yesterday. They looked on SubaruNet, talked with SOA, and did some diagnostics. Finally decided to order a power steering pump but I never heard why they suspected that part. Sounds like a guess to me :shrug:

[DrPhyzx]

Originally Posted by Dante

2008 WRB, 5,800 miles, stock + AP (93 oct map).

When the car is hot, I'm hearing a noise from the front end when turning hard. Sounds like a power steering whine. First noticed it turning into my street but this weekend it was really bad when driving hard. No feeling from the steering wheel that I can tell, just the whine.

Knowledgable WRX'r suggested it was a steering rack bushing and that it was common to hear a whine in the prev. gen WRX/STi's because of them. Any thoughts?

I'm taking it to Suby this afternoon for warranty and I'll post up the results from their diagnostic. Just wanted to make a record of this and see if anyone else has noticed it.

I hear this kind of noise under sharp cornering too, but it sounds like mild brake dragging to me since it has a rhythm and is speed dependent.

[fullerton]

I would doubt it was the bushings... how exactly would they be making noise?

[Dante]

Update: Dealer initially thought it was a relief valve problem on the power steering pump/system. Ordered a new p/s pump and installed it this week. Noise is still there, so they put a set of listening devices on it and now beleive it's a problem with the actual steering gear. Ordering that and it'll be installed in the next week or two. Still havn't found anyone else with this problem so hopefully it's a fluke!

[fullerton]

You should ask if you can buy the dead rack from them. I bet that Q-Rack would be interested in it, since they trash the stock gears and put in faster ones.

[freeman]

I had exactly the same problem. It seems like the power steering fluid is overheat and boiling when the car is driven hard.

My dealer replaced the power steering pump,but the noise is still there. I will have them to check my steering rack bushings later.

I found that noise is related to engine temperature, the whine is louder when my engine bay is hotter.

[Dante]

Update #2:

P/s pump replaced last week but it didn't fix the whine (just like Freeman said). They're now guessing it's the actual steering gear. Too bad it's not released to the dealers yet. Should ship ~ July 31st and I'll have it installed the first week or two of August.

Service Rep said that they suspected the gear had been 'nicked' and was causing air bubbles to form in the fluid. Sounds strange...

Kudo's for my dealership not trying to screw me or trying to tell me not to worry about it. Bummer for Suby to not have all the parts ready.

And Freeman, thanks for chiming in so I don't feel so alone!

[DrPhyzx]

Originally Posted by Dante

Update #2:

P/s pump replaced last week but it didn't fix the whine (just like Freeman said). They're now guessing it's the actual steering gear. Too bad it's not released to the dealers yet. Should ship ~ July 31st and I'll have it installed the first week or two of August.

Service Rep said that they suspected the gear had been 'nicked' and was causing air bubbles to form in the fluid. Sounds strange...

Kudo's for my dealership not trying to screw me or trying to tell me not to worry about it. Bummer for Suby to not have all the parts ready.

And Freeman, thanks for chiming in so I don't feel so alone!

Well... my noise has progressed to something that concerns me. Just drove to lunch on a very windy road with a friend. What had been a rhythmic whiny-squeaky metal-on-metal kind of noise in moderate right turns now makes a rhythmic popping/tapping noise from the front left of the car in HARD right turns, especially on-power. I'm getting close to 3K anyway, so I think I'll get it to the dealer ASAP. However, I'm very interested to learn what others find out about similar issues.

BTW, I could swear I read a thread about popping noises while turning on here, but now I cannot find the thread for the life of me. Anyone know what happened to that thread? Did I imagine it?

[freeman]

I added a turbo heatshield recently that reduced the engine bay temperature by quite a bit. The power steering fluid hoses are fairly close to turbo and down pipe, and it can get pretty hot quickly.

The heatshield somewhat reduced/delayed the noise a little bit,but the whining noise is still there after some driving.

Someone suggests that i should have my power steering rack bushing and O-ring checked and see if they are defective.

I will also try some red-line power steering fluid which should be able to take more heat than normal subaru fluid.

I will keep bothering my local subaru dealers until they get it right.

Originally Posted by Dante

Update #2:

P/s pump replaced last week but it didn't fix the whine (just like Freeman said). They're now guessing it's the actual steering gear. Too bad it's not released to the dealers yet. Should ship ~ July 31st and I'll have it installed the first week or two of August.

Service Rep said that they suspected the gear had been 'nicked' and was causing air bubbles to form in the fluid. Sounds strange...

Kudo's for my dealership not trying to screw me or trying to tell me not to worry about it. Bummer for Suby to not have all the parts ready.

And Freeman, thanks for chiming in so I don't feel so alone!

[DrPhyzx]

Originally Posted by freeman

I added a turbo heatshield recently that reduced the engine bay temperature by quite a bit. The power steering fluid hoses are fairly close to turbo and down pipe, and it can get pretty hot quickly.

The heatshield somewhat reduced/delayed the noise a little bit,but the whining noise is still there after some driving.

Someone suggests that i should have my power steering rack bushing and O-ring checked and see if they are defective.

I will also try some red-line power steering fluid which should be able to take more heat than normal subaru fluid.

I will keep bothering my local subaru dealers until they get it right.

Thanks for updating... I think you may be onto something. It was much hotter today (90F+) than when I typically drive (70F or less) and I drove HARD. When I drove home tonight it was much cooler and things were back to just squeaking rather than tapping/clicking. Looking through a lot of old threads here and at NASIOC the main suspects for this kind of noise are usually brakes, bearings or CV. Since the squeak originally sounded like brakes to me, I am still suspicious on this.

Under hard cornering, everything deflects and having some brake rubbing would not be that surprising. If enough heat is generated you can get a vicious cycle where brake fluid boils, expands and causes further rubbing. Because the pads are kinematically mounted, one can get clicking/tapping noises too. I once had a bike (first year CBR900RR... I loved that bike) that had a recall due to pad/caliper clearance that was too small, exacerbating this exact problem.

Another thought... are any brake lines close to heat sources? It'll be a few days, but once I get this into the dealer, I'll post back.

[BuzSTid]

if i recall correctly the original thread where the steering clunked was directly related to hard cornering with a locked front diff.

[DrPhyzx]

Originally Posted by BuzSTid

if i recall correctly the original thread where the steering clunked was directly related to hard cornering with a locked front diff.

100% sure that's not the case here as I followed my usual protocol: Auto-, S#, VDC-off. I guess it's possible there was a slip of the finger, but I really don't see how. This reminds me... one morning starting out cold some weeks ago I had some clicking in low-speed turns. It cleared up within a block or two and I just figured some minor road debris had lodged someplace and then came free. Honestly, I'm pretty puzzled at this point.

[Dante]

Back into the dealer yesterday. They replaced the steering gear but the tech said he could still hear the noise slightly. A Suby Engineer was in the dealership today to take a look at it. They made some adjustments and they say the noise is fixed. I'll pick it up this afternoon and see!

Additionally, when talking to my service manager (i.e. The Middle Man) he said that the p/s fluid pressure in the '08 is greater than previous car )partly due to a redesign and partly to adjust the steering feeling). That greater pressure was likely causing blowby on a seal and causing p/s fluid to get into places it shouldn't be, somehow causing the whine.

Doing some hard driving this weekend so we'll see if it's really fixed.