Pete,
I am pleased that it sorted you out and may have saved you a significant outlay. I see that you are in EG - I am in Turners Hill. - 2007(57) XS Auto, Rimini Red, Alpaca Leather.
- GCS Hawke - Sports, BRG, Vulcan 2.1 inj'. My toy - built it myself in 2001.

Just had the same fault on my 07 GS, although I think it was the pump not the rack that caused it. Whole system replaced and 4-wheel allignment done under LR Extended Warranty by a very helpful JLC Landrover in Herne Hill.

My FL2 (Dec 2007) started the power steering whine whilst on holiday in France.
Although it is out of warranty the FL2 has only done 23,000 miles.
As this is clearly a manufacturers fault then why should I not claim under the 1979 Sales of Goods Act?
My car is certainly now not fit for purpose, which is not due to wear and tear.
I would appreciate a copy of the Bulletin LTB00272 if I have to go down the legal route.
AlanE

AlanE wrote:

My FL2 (Dec 2007) started the power steering whine whilst on holiday in France.
Although it is out of warranty the FL2 has only done 23,000 miles.
As this is clearly a manufacturers fault then why should I not claim under the 1979 Sales of Goods Act?
My car is certainly now not fit for purpose, which is not due to wear and tear.
I would appreciate a copy of the Bulletin LTB00272 if I have to go down the legal route.
AlanE

I realy dont think his car is realy old. First reg dec 2007 makes it only just over four and ahalf years old. (ITS NOT 30 YEARS old LOL)
This is still a young pup. WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT A BALL JOINT HEAR. There was problems with the original parts fitted, FACT.
On this fact I think he has every right to try and make a claim as parts are not fit for for which they were intended for.
Should the car of covered many more miles early on in its life then it would of failed in the warranty period. Landrover know this and are just trying not to pay out hoping some cars will run out of warranty first, Dam right appauling.

I have a copy of the original Technical servive Bulletin which Landrover issued for those who are interested
Iusse date november 2009 vin range H000001 - H150000

Thanks to this great post I was able to point mechanics in the right direction on my Fl2 TD4 HSE with 48,000 km, replaced reservoir and fluid all good to go !

Cheers Mike Chapman

freedieselauto wrote:

I have a 2007 auto TD4 with only 29,000 miles on the clock which developed heavy steering at low speed and a constant whine from the steering pump. I determined from other posts that this is a common problem so I replaced the reservoir and flushed and refilled the fluid and all now seems to be sorted. Well at least it has been perfect for 400 miles or so. I have put together a summary of how to do this as it is relatively easy for DIY and saves many hundreds of pounds for those of us out of warranty.

Heavy steering (possibly accompanied by a whine from the power steering pump)

Symptoms

Heavy steering at low speeds i.e. parking and a very annoying whine from the power steering pump which at one point I thought was the turbo. My FL2 is Sept 2007 and 30k miles so out of warranty.

Land Rover - Power steering bulletin.

No.LTB00272 November 24 2009. Vin Range H000001-H150000

1st - If there is internal knocking noise from the centre of the steering gear, cause weld splatter contamination in gear tube, change rack power steering reservoir after flushing system.

2nd - If rack is ok flush system and fit new reservoir only.

The cause.

Some early vehicles were fitted with steering racks contaminated with weld spatter which is picked up in the fluid and collects on the filter in the reservoir and ultimately restricts the supply of fluid to the pump. The filter cannot be removed and cleaned as it is an integral part of the reservoir and is impossible to see well from above. The power steering fluid in my reservoir was grey and dirty.

Solution

If caught early enough this can be rectified by replacing the reservoir and flushing the system and replacing with new PAS fluid. Here is how I did it for about £30 and a couple of hours own labour.

What you will need:

• PAS fluid (green) - 2 litres (I could have just about done it with one) - Land Rover Part No. LR003401, which costs about £8.83 a litre (inc VAT). You can use an alternative Pentosin CHF202 hydraulic fluid.. Saab stock it but my local dealer charges about £17 a litre. Don’t use standard off-the-shelf fluid as I believe it will not mix.

• New reservoir and cap – Land Rover part number LR000578. Cost me £11.56 (inc VAT).

• Fuel hand primer bulb - £4.70 from internet.(see notes below- avoids mess and can also be used to prime the fuel filter, after cleaning)

• Trolley jack and 2 axle stands.

• 2 metres of clear pipe.


What you need to do:

Raise the front wheels off the ground to make turning the wheels easier without the engine powering the PAS. Trolley jack is helpful here and a couple of axle stands.

Cover the auxiliary drive belt and the area around and under the reservoir and pipes to avoid contamination, which is difficult to remove.(don’t forget to remove these before you start the engine later on)

Remove the PAS fluid from the reservoir by sucking it out with a fuel hand primer bulb which has a one-way valve. They are cheap to buy on the internet (I got one for £4.70 + postage) and makes the job a lot cleaner. If you don’t have a bulb place a receptacle under the reservoir of at least the capacity of the reservoir to catch old fluid that will poor out of the reservoir – very messy!

It is useful to lift the reservoir from its mounting bracket to gain better access to the pipes underneath.

Remove the ‘supply to pump’ pipe (the larger of the two pipes fitting straight onto the reservoir stub pipe to one side of the base of the reservoir) by decompressing the spring clip. Very messy here if you have not pumped out the reservoir! Removing this one first from the reservoir makes access to the ‘return to reservoir’ pipe much easier as its connector can be awkward.

Remove the ‘return to reservoir’ pipe by depressing the button on the 90 degree elbow connector at the end of the pipe and pull it to release it from the lip on the pipe stub. My connector was a bit stubborn but a bit of jiggling sorted it out.

Remove the old reservoir.

Plug the ‘return to reservoir’ pipe connector on the new reservoir ( the one in the middle – I used insulation tape as no fluid pressure) and connect the ‘supply to pump’ pipe to the new reservoir.

Put a long clear hose in or on the free ‘return to reservoir’ pipe and run it into a container to catch the old fluid (sufficient for the volume of fluid being used). Ideally use a clear hose so that you can see the colour change of the new fluid. I cut off the pipe connector stub on the old reservoir with a hacksaw to ensure a good fit in the connector (needs to be cleaned after cutting to avoid contamination) and attached the clear hose into the cut off stub and sealed with insulation tape. This needs to be done quite well to avoid it being pushed out by the pressure of the fluid being forced through. When you are removing it later on, the stub may come away from the tube and stay in the elbow connector so long nose pliers may be needed to extract the stub from the pipe clip of the connector. It may be easier for you to remove the elbow connector from the pipe and connect the return pipe directly to your clear pipe – I could not do this as I could not separate the elbow from the pipe.

If your clear pipe is long enough, say 2 metres, it is useful to extend it to a large receptacle placed about 3 feet from the front offside wheel so you can turn the steering wheel, see the reservoir and the collecting receptacle or at least the clear pipe all at the same time so it is a one-man job and the wife doesn’t get oily and cross.

Fit the new reservoir into the bracket in the engine bay.

Still with the engine off pour new fluid in to the plugged reservoir.

Turn the steering wheel back and forth, from lock to lock to force the fluid in the rack out of the tube. Keep the tank topped up to avoid drawing in air and keep turning the steering wheel back and forth.

After a few tanks full clean fluid should come out. About one litre of PAS fluid should be enough to flush most of the old fluid out but have two litres to flush a bit more and have enough to top up at the end. My old fluid was a mucky grey so obviously full of swarf from the rack.

When the fluid is flowing clean, make the tank nearly empty by turning the steering wheel back and forth so that there is limited spillage when the return to reservoir hose is reconnected to the reservoir. Reconnect it quickly and there should be limited spillage.

Refill the reservoir.

Turn the steering wheel from lock to lock quickly several times to bleed the air from the lines, then look into the tank and see if there are any air bubbles.

Remove all the rags you used to cover the auxiliary belt etc.

Start the engine and turn the wheels back and forth to circulate the fluid.

Turn off the engine and repeat this step until no more air bubbles appear but make sure the fluid level in the reservoir does not get too low.

Check the fluid level with the road wheels in the straight on position.

This procedure cured my whining steering pump and heavy steering at low speed. The filter in my reservoir was heavily blocked so it must have been starving the pump. It is now like new and hopefully I caught it before the pump and rack failed which would have cost several hundred pounds and made me very cross!

Time taken - About two and a half hours taking it methodically including the ubiquitous tea break and fending off “helpful” neighbours so it probably can be done a lot quicker – it’s a good job I don’t work for a LR dealer.

Mike,

Glad to hear the summary was helpful and that your steering problem is sorted. - 2007(57) XS Auto, Rimini Red, Alpaca Leather.
- GCS Hawke - Sports, BRG, Vulcan 2.1 inj'. My toy - built it myself in 2001.

last week my 08 hse auto with 37k miles started to make a whining noise from the engine bay,thanks to this superb post i have now changed the reservoir and fluid at a cost of £28 with parts from land rover.

the old fluid was dark grey in color,flushed out the system and put in new,i then cut up the old reservoir to have a look at the filter which was approx 75% blocked,

easy job to carry out if you follow instructions in the post.

All, I had my 2009 FL2 into the garage for a PAS header tank flush which sorted the whine problem for about 2 miles! Then it was back - a strangled cat under the bonnet!
Fitted an exchange PAS pump myself which didn't cure the problem, went back to the header tank, took it off and then flushed it like this:

1) Thorough rinse in petrol.
2) Wash out in Warm soapy water.
3) Rinse in Windex (window cleaner).
4) Blow through using strong suction from a vacuum cleaner.

Repeat the above 3 times.

Refitted and refilled. NO FURTHER PROBLEM!

So, before you buy a new header tank/filter, try the above - worked for me! Just wished I'd done it before buying an exchange PAS pump (although good to know I've got a good one on there now!). The filter is extremely fine and not easy to clean, but with persistence and the right solvents you can!

Hope this helps!

Glad to hear you are sorted. However, the original reservoir was manufactured with too fine a mesh on the filter, so you may experience it getting clogged again . The newer reservoir has a coarser mesh so it is less prone to getting clogged and was only about £14 when I replaced mine. It may be worth replacing it for peace of mind but your thorough flush may have sorted it.  - 2007(57) XS Auto, Rimini Red, Alpaca Leather.
- GCS Hawke - Sports, BRG, Vulcan 2.1 inj'. My toy - built it myself in 2001.

Last edited by freedieselauto on 28th Mar 2013 10:15 pm. Edited 1 time in total

I did a bit of preventative maintainance on mine. Steering wasnt noisey, but dont want to be stung for a rack and pump. So I took a sample of oil out of the resevoir, looked a bit dirty.

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Quite a contrast in the colour of those 2 samples of fluid - old & new. From a regular dealership servicing perspective, should the fluid be allowed to get that dirty in the first instance without being changed? Service schedule quotes the following:

Check/top up brake, PAS, and clutch fluid levels and screen washer reservoirs

This is a requirement on the B service (every 30,000 miles or 24 months). I would have thought it would have been at an earlier interval and there is no mention as far as I can see about actually changing it along with the reservoir/filter.

Superspark's helpful comment of the VIN range of models affected being H000001 - H150000 has put my mind at rest slightly but for the relatively cheap outlay of changing the reservoir and flushing through, I think I will do it as a preventative measure. That's when I finally get home to actually drive it. Readers of my other posts will remember I have only test drove my FL2 so far as I purchased it the day before I returned to work abroad at the end of January. I feel like a kid at Christmas knowing what you wanted more than anything months in advance but having to wait months for the magic day to arrive. Wifey is over the moon with it, neighbours are a bit green with envy though

Dave007 - You should be OK if you have the newer reservoir with the coarser filter but it is worth checking the colour of the fluid to see if it is contaminated with any metal swarf etc.  - 2007(57) XS Auto, Rimini Red, Alpaca Leather.
- GCS Hawke - Sports, BRG, Vulcan 2.1 inj'. My toy - built it myself in 2001.

Yes it is quite a colour change for only 48k miles. I am used to red power steering fluid, and even over 80k miles and 9 years of ownership of my 200sx power steering fluid was still clean, clear and red .

No matter how much you change the power steering fluid still doesnt stop the fuel pump failing. After only a week and half of ownership freelander had its first trip home on the back of a recovery truck Ran sweet as a nut for the trip from Warrington to Bangor, stopped at tesco to change the baby and get a few bits and bobs for her. Came to start the car and it just cranked. Second attempt it fired for a second then spluttered and died. Greenflag guy said there was no fuel getting to the injectors or fuel filter. :S It got a 3 month warrenty from stratstones so hopefully they sort it out quickly. :S
Had to ride to work tonight for my night shift after NO sleep. Not happy! Rant over ..

Thanks for the original post, excellent instructions.
I saw this instructable on Youtube too:
Cheers fellas,
~Sean