bigrichards

Hey guys, I've got a 99 Tacoma Prerunner and just recently I noticed a knocking noise that as far as I can tell is coming from the Power Steering pump. I haven't had any problem with my power steering, no jerking, no squeeling..... nothing, just this clacking noise that will stop if I turn the wheel either right or left. It seems to speed up a little bit when I hit the gas.

Local garage says I need a new power steering pump but its only got 45,000 miles on it, and my power steering seems fine so I'm a little skeptical. Any other ideas? Could it be the pulley bearings?

Thanks in advance.

bigrichards

Now the noise is gone. Drove it to the Stealership and not a freakin peep. It's been clanging for the past 5 days and I've done everything I can think of to find out what the problem. It was definitely metal on metal banging around but if the power steering pump was crapping out wouldn't I notice some other problems like....leaking fluid, hard steering, squeeling when I turn the wheel, etc, etc....? No problem what so ever except as soon as the truck was fired up the knocking would begin.

VORTMAX_99

My 99 4WD Taco did the same thing about 48000 miles. Went down to autozone
and got one of their lifetime guarantee pumps for about 100 bucks. When I was
removing the pump...I noticed the nut that secures the pulley had come loose.
Removed it...added some lock-tite and retightened it. Took the pump back to
autozone. Now have 54000 miles on it with no problems.

Hope this helps

George