Power steering whine post flush/drive belt swap

2010 Legacy 2.5i Premium 130k miles

 

On Friday, I had the drive belt replaced while having some recall work done at the dealership. They recommended the power steering fluid be flushed (as well as the brake fluid be flushed) and quoted me twice as much as the place I typically have my oil changes done at. After I picked up my car, I drove down the street to have those two flushes performed. Now when I start my car when it's cold, I hear a whine. I heard the whine when I picked my car up after the flush, and it seemed to be present for about ten seconds. For the past two days after starting my car when it's cold, I hear the whine but the duration of the whine isn't as long as the first time I picked it up. When I start my car and the engine is warm, I don't hear a whine. I'm unsure if it has to do with the drive belt or the fluid flush. The power steering reservoir has a clear fluid in it (I read somewhere it should actually be red). When the engine is cold, the fluid level is at the Hot Max (which I'm not even sure is a big deal or not).

 

I'm wondering if this is just normal since I haven't had a power steering in about 32k miles. I don't even remember a whine occurring back then. Any insight would be appreciated.

 

Steve

I also want to add I can't see bubbles in the reservoir when I take the cap off, but I've never checked it when the car is running.

The manual suggests either Dexron III (which is probably the red you're thinking of) or Subaru ATF (no idea what color that would be), so as long as they used some kind of automatic transmission fluid, you should be fine. The internet tells me that ATF and power steering fluid are pretty similar, so even if that's what they used, I wouldn't expect it to break anything immediately after being flushed. My guess would be that you still have some small bubbles trapped in the system somewhere- warm up the car, then crank the steering wheel from lock to lock a few times and see if it gets any better.

Power steering fluid doesn't have the detergents atf does. If it were me I would use a turkey baster and remove all the fluid I could then put in the correct fluid.

 

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Dextron III is what Subaru calls for so it's a good idea to use that. You can encourage any air trapped in the system to come out by finding a big, open parking lot and driving around in lazy figure-8s for a few minutes. Go full lock-to-lock on the steering while doing this.

Today was the first time I was able to drive it around. I did some figure-8s and some circles with the steering locked in either direction. I'm going to let it cool for a few hours. If I start it up, and it still does it, I'll call the place who performed the flush and report it to them.