Greetings to all!

As my freelander had developed a nasty knock sound when turning steering wheel from one side to another, I first replaced both inner and outer tie rods just to understand that it was in the end the steering rack. Found a local garage which removed, refurbished and put back the rack for as little as 250 EUR. It did solve the problem and there is no more knock, BUT once I started to drive, i noticed a whining noise from engine bay, which got louder as engine revs went up. Returned back to the shop, and the mechanic said that most probably it is the oil pump and there are still some air bubbles left and this should disappear. But then he opened the steering fluid reservoir and said that these reservoirs have a filter element built inside and once it gets clogged, it has to be changed since not enough of fluid is flowing towards the pump and also air bubbles cannot escape. After around a 20 minute ride, the sound was almost gone, so I am wondering - has anyone faced this mentioned issue with clogged up fluid reservoir? In my case it is not as much a question of 20-30EUR reservoir, but rather finding this part in eastern europe (nearly impossible).

Best regards!

a new resevoir can be found here on amazon, but you will also need Fuchs Titan CHF202 fluid

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Huhebne-Freelande...amp;sr=8-1

Did they put the correct fluid in it?
It's not ordinary red PS fluid, it takes green hydraulic fluid. Using the wrong fluid can damage the pump, as can running the engine with insufficient fluid in the reservoir.

I'm hoping my PS pump is ok, after I lost PS fluid on the way home, so had to limp it 3 miles home without PS, or anything in the pump.

I'll find out tonight if there's any pump damage, as the pipes have arrived for fitting. 2009 Rimini Red SE TD4. Soon to be sold.
Hyundai Ioniq 5 Ultimate on order.
Gone. 2006 Tonga Green i6 HSE.

I wonder did the mechanic do the correct simple procedure for removing air from the system?

I will ring him up tomorrow, but taking into account the amount of steering racks and cars that he is refurbishing, i don't have high hopes that he will remember. The fluid in reservoir is pinkish, and by reading this forum i found out that it should be green. I did manage to find the correct fluid nearby, so im buying it tomorrow. BUT the big question is - since there are no reservoirs available where I live, the fastest delivery i can get from ebay is 10 days, which is a lot. Should I rather remove the current reservoir, try to clean the filter (with brake cleaner perhaps?) and then do the system flushing, or should i rather drive with the pink-ish fluid for 10 days and wait for the part?

Oh, and I Like Chips, can you share the simple correct procedure to remove the air? Might come in handy when flushing the thing.

All it involves is after replacing the old fluid and if needed the old reservoir, fill the reservoir, turn the engine on then just turn the steering wheel full lock to full lock say three or four times recheck the fluid level. This gets the air out of the system.

If it's got pink fluid in it, then it's the wrong fluid for sure. It should be green CHF which is a fully synthetic hydraulic fluid, specifically designed for modern car steering systems, and some suspension systems too.

Dexron type automatic transmission fluids used to be OK in older vehicle PS systems, but it's completely unsuitable for moden vehicles like the Freelander 2.

You'll need to get every trace of the Dexron fluid out, and replace it with the correct CHF.

The diesel Freelander 2 uses a complex variable displacement power steering pump, so it can take some time to purge all the air out.
The bulk of the air will be removed after turning the steering lock to lock (make sure the reservoir remains above the MIN mark) a few times. However you will see that the fluid also contains millions of microscopic bubbles, and it's these that can take some time to completely remove, sometimes several drive cycles.

You could try reverse blasting the reservoir filter with brake cleaner, but you'll need to get the dirt out of the reservoir container, though the tiny cap hole, which wouldn't be easy. 2009 Rimini Red SE TD4. Soon to be sold.
Hyundai Ioniq 5 Ultimate on order.
Gone. 2006 Tonga Green i6 HSE.

The reservoir replacement was a fairly common occurrence, certainly amongst owners of earlier cars. Perhaps a bit like tyres or batteries, we knew they would need replacing but not when.

I changed mine on my MY10 XS after the steering whine appeared and quickly worsened. Problem cured instantly. An easy job, even for a fairly non-mechanic biff like me. Cheap enough too unless you have a main dealer do it.

Operation done - managed to get a new reservoir as well as the right fluid. I followed the instructions on youtube - attached the new reservoir to the largest pipe and the old reservoir to smallest pipe, filled the new reservoir with new fluid, turned on the ignition and moved the steering wheel (with engine off) from one lock to another a couple of times, then drained the old fluid in old reservoir. Did this a couple of times, till the fluid coming in the old tank was crystal-clear green. I have to say, the old fluid was very bad, seemed like water from swamp mixed with coffee, with a green-ish colour. It seemed odd, since the shop which refurbished my rack had to replace the fluid, but guess what, when draining the fluid from rack, they collected the old one and put in back in the system .....

But all is good now - no whining noise from the pump, and gosh how light the steering wheel feels now. Super happy, thanks for all the suggestions.

This is something that you should definitely do every, lets say, 80 - 100 000 miles? Cost was less than 50 EUR, but the difference in the lightness of steering wheel is out of this world