Hey,

I don't think this is a major issue, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

After about 30 minutes of driving, the steering becomes heavy and the steering system makes a 'whirring' noise, quite loud. Is there a problem with my power steering liquid? If so, is this a cheap fix? Thanks in advance.

Have you got plenty fluid in the power steering tank and what colour is it, it should be cherry red.

...The engine coolant resevoir is a cherry red, but as far as I can tell the power steering fluid has no obvious colour. It looks quite full when I look into it, but it's impossible to tell how full.

I phoned Ford this morning to book the car in to have it looked at and they have said it will cost an initial £120 just to diagnose a problem. I'm not paying that.

It should look cherry red colour, if its dirty ie dark and greyish it needs changing, stick your finger in and see what colour your finger comes out, cold of course.

...okay, thanks. I'll give that a try tomorrow and see what happens. I might just book it in to an independent garage and ask them to drain and replace the power steering fluid. Unless I need to take it to Ford for this kind of job.

Any garage should be able to change the power steering fluid.

You have to make sure it's bled properly once you've changed it else it'll make just as much noise as it does now if it's full of air!!

Well, the power steering fluid is a black colour, haha. Looks like this is the problem. I dipped a piece of paper in it to get a good idea of its colour.

Ford are full up today, so I'll have to book it in early next week. I'll get Ford to do it for peace of mind as some garages might not have the correct fluid, etc.

It's just normal Automatic Transmission Fluid nothing special, It's overcooked itself, very common on this car, the cooling is non existant.

You need to flush as much of the old fluid out as possible else it'll just get re-contaminated again.

Wouldn't be suprised if your pump is on the way out and cooking the fluid.

There's nothing you can do about it really other than installing an automatic Fiesta's tranmission cooler to the cooler pack on the front on the low pressure circuit, (return from the rack to the pump), do-able but hard work.

Well I'll get the fluid changed and see how the steering responds after that. I don't want to fork out for a new pump as I'm getting rid of the car mid May for an Alfa Romeo MITO.

Another MITO mover.

I thinks Alfa's on to a winner here and well deserved too.

Well I've just come off the phone to my local Ford garage, and they want an astonishing £70 to replace the power steering fluid. I'm not paying that.

The guy I spoke to said he wouldn't recommend replacing the fluid as it may play holy hell with the bearings inside the pump mechanism. And it's around £200 for a new pump.

As I said, I'm moving to Alfa Romeo in May, so I think I'll just leave it and plead ignorance.

£70

Disgusting...

£70 to do what, crazy.

I haven't had much luck with my Fiesta ST. A few months ago the passenger seat catch snapped off, and that cost £40 to fix (Ford paid half of the £80 total cost because I complained that it wasn't covered by warranty), then about four months ago my driver's electric window fell into the door panel, which cost me another £60 (yet again I complained as Ford wanted £220 to fix it).

Now the power steering pump has gone AWOL. And it is seriously damaging my enjoyment of driving the car. Once it has warmed up, the steering becomes very heavy and the noise is driving me nuts. WHY WON'T MY ALFA ARRIVE ALREADY!