Power Steering Whine in 2002 Windstar

[sc354]

We are currently driving down to florida. I am posting from my laptop in the car. Anyways, whenever we are making a turn, and are at lower speeds, the power steering seems to make quite a noticeable whine. It go to the point where my mom (extremely ignorant when it comes to cars), actually noticed it and said...what's wrong with the steering?

I checked the level of the fluid and it's between the max and min line. Has anyone had this problem before, and if you got it fixed, can you state what the fix for this was...?

thanks guys.

[lewisnc100]

Check my post on 11/24. My 2000 had the same whine and I flushed out all the old fluid and replaced with synthetic ATF. The steps are in my post, since then back to normal. You mentioned you checked the level of the fluid, take a good look at the color and smell. ATF should be red, mine was brown like hot chocolate and definitely needed a flushing.

[sc354]

Originally Posted by lewisnc100

Check my post on 11/24. My 2000 had the same whine and I flushed out all the old fluid and replaced with synthetic ATF. The steps are in my post, since then back to normal. You mentioned you checked the level of the fluid, take a good look at the color and smell. ATF should be red, mine was brown like hot chocolate and definitely needed a flushing.

I took it to Sawgrass Ford. They concluded that the tie rod needed replacing, and a gear in the power steering also needed replacing.

anyways, so far it's running well.

thanks