---
title: 'How to Replace a Power Steering Pump'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=04iDF3I6dTo'
video_id: '04iDF3I6dTo'
date: 2026-08-05
duration_sec: 1478
---

# How to Replace a Power Steering Pump

> Source: [How to Replace a Power Steering Pump](https://youtube.com/watch?v=04iDF3I6dTo)

## Summary

This video demonstrates how to replace a power steering pump and lines using a 2004 BMW E46 as an example. The presenter covers diagnosing common power steering issues, then walks through the entire replacement process step-by-step, including removing the old pump, installing new parts, and bleeding the system.

### Key Points

- **Introduction and Scope** [00:02] — The video will show how to replace a power steering pump and lines, using a 2004 BMW E46 as an example. The presenter notes that once you learn on one car, you can apply the knowledge to others.
- **Diagnosis: Check Fluid First** [00:39] — Before assuming a bad pump, check the power steering fluid level. In this case, the fluid is at the correct level, so the issue is not a simple leak.
- **Symptom: Hard Steering** [01:22] — The presenter demonstrates that the steering is extremely difficult to turn, which is a classic symptom of a failing power steering pump. This is especially problematic for endurance racing.
- **Symptom: Groaning Noise** [02:00] — A groaning noise from the pump can indicate a problem. Sometimes it's just old fluid that needs replacing, but if the noise persists after a flush, the pump may be bad.
- **Symptom: Loose Belt** [03:06] — Hard steering can also be caused by a loose belt. Check if the pulley slows down or stops when the engine is running, which indicates belt slippage.
- **Tools and Parts Needed** [03:46] — Common hand tools are sufficient: pliers, ratchets, wrenches, sockets, extensions. The presenter purchased a kit including a new pump, reservoir, lines, and crush washers.
- **Project Context: Endurance Car** [05:10] — The car is being built for the 24 Hours of Lemons endurance race on a budget. The power steering pump replacement is necessary for drivability.
- **Step 1: Lift the Car and Drain Fluid** [06:29] — Use ramps to lift the front end, chock the wheels, and place cardboard underneath to catch spills. Drain as much fluid as possible from the reservoir using a turkey baster.
- **Step 2: Remove Air Box for Access** [07:49] — Disconnect the air box and mass airflow sensor to gain better access to the reservoir and lines.
- **Step 3: Remove the Pump** [08:42] — Remove the belt, pulley, and three bolts holding the pump. The pulley may be stuck and require prying; it may break if damaged.
- **Step 4: Transfer Bracket and Install New Pump** [12:56] — Swap the bracket from the old pump to the new one, apply thread locker, and torque to 16 ft-lbs. Install the new pump and connect the lines.
- **Step 5: Replace Reservoir and Lines** [15:01] — Replace the reservoir (with a new filter) and the high-pressure line. Use new crush washers and torque the banjo bolt to 26 ft-lbs.
- **Step 6: Refill and Bleed System** [20:28] — Fill with correct power steering fluid (full synthetic for BMW). Start the engine and turn the steering wheel lock-to-lock about five times to bleed air.
- **Final Checks and Test Drive** [23:31] — Check for leaks, top off fluid, and take a test drive. The steering should be smooth and quiet.

### Conclusion

Replacing a power steering pump and lines is a manageable DIY job with basic tools. Proper diagnosis, careful removal, and correct bleeding are key to a successful repair.

## Transcript

going to show you how to replace a power steering pump as well as power steering lines in your car or truck and we'll be using my 2004 bmw e46 as an example because it needs a new
into an endurance car but before we do that out i'll show you why in a second now the good thing about installing power once you do one you pretty much have a good idea on how to do them all they
all the same so after you guys are done watching this video you'll be able to change the power steering pump and lines in your vehicle no problem so now if you think you have a power steering issue because you hear noise or
because your steering is difficult well before you go and assume it's a bad you should do is check the power steering fluid so reservoir which is this right here so let's unscrew the cap and
our fluid level and you can see here we have fluid in here which is good to that fill line right there perfectly so this unfortunately is not our problem and i say unfortunately because a lot of times it's not the
instead it's a leak from the reservoir or a line that you could easily replace good to go now in this case that is definitely not the problem and let me show you why so let's start up the car and check this
out we gotta turn the steering wheel oh man this is so difficult to turn cars with bad power steering pumps and they are never this difficult to
now imagine doing this for 14 to 16 hours in an endurance race street it's just not good so the power steering pump definitely
has to be replaced in this car now real quickly i want to cover a steering is stiff it's hard to turn it could be a bad power steering pump but it could also be something else so let me show you how to diagnose it for
you hear a groaning noise coming from the power steering pump take a listen to the power steering pump take a listen to this
making a groaning noise now in this case i know that fords have loud power steering pumps this is a mazda b3000 it was owned by that pump is actually a ford pump so i'm not concerned that's been like that
i got the truck but if your power steering pump never made any weird started making noises that's a sign that you have a problem sometimes it's as simple as the old fluid is worn out and isn't lubricating
and that's what's giving you the noise and check this out that is the old fluid and this is the new fluid you could clearly see the difference between the well so you get more noise and sometimes that's all it is all you
add some new fluid and you're good to go and i'll link the video on how to flush find it now after you go and flush out all the there if it is still making noise and it's
there's a good chance that your power steering pump is bad and needs to be now one last common symptom i want to cover if it's hard to steer and while squeaking there's a chance that your belt is loose
causing your hard steering so what you could do is turn the car on and have somebody and look to see if the pulley is slowing down like this
or even stopping completely like that and that could be just the belt is loose now i just wanted to real quickly cover those different symptoms if you have a because it's not always going to be a bad power steering pump but in this case
it definitely is a bad power steering pump so let me show you how to install a and here are all the tools and products you're going to need to get this job as usual we are using common hand tools so if you have a basic tool set
pliers ratchet wrenches sockets extensions as well as a able to change all this now i bought a power steering steering pump came with the crush washers we need it
actually pretty important a lot of cars have a filter in the reservoir in this case for the bmw the filter is not serviceable you can't get so that's definitely the original reservoir this has over 250 000 miles
been the reason why the power steering pump went bad extra bucks and replace that reservoir then we have a low pressure line which i it just in case came with the kit and we have a high pressure line which
and let me show you why if you take a look right here you can see our high and rotted and this is just a ticking time bomb waiting to go bad and finally the last thing you're going to need is new power steering fluid so
after we replace everything now to make it easy for you guys i will be sure to this video down in the description so you could easily find them now i got this car for a steal of a deal
because there is a lot wrong with this need to fix right away is that power steering pump because otherwise this it's not drivable now i bought the car because ebay motors challenged me to
endurance race car for the 24 hours of lemons so that means we have to fix this car up on a strict budget now every 10 over that 500 budget is one penalty lap so unfortunately with that 1100
purchase price we are way over budget but luckily we could sell a bunch of and bring that price down and if we do sell all those parts we're at 430 the new power steering pump so the least expensive power steering pump i could
was on ebay motors and we have a whole kit here for a hundred and forty dollars that make an offer button so i offered the guy hundred and ten dollars and that's pretty good for all those
and that's pretty good for all those parts and that brings us to 540 laps which is completely worth it because we need power steering in this doing a 16-hour endurance race without it is not an
motors very much for supporting the video lot of fun i cannot wait to get on the track so now let me show you guys how to replace your power steering pump so first the power steering pump in this
car is accessed from under the car so i'm using ramps to lift the front end stance and don't forget to chalk off the wheels to keep the car from rolling by okay so the car safely lifted up now let me show you where the power steering
pump is we have to go underneath the vehicle and it is located right up there and as you can see there's not a ton of room to work we sway bar right here we might have to disconnect the sway bar and lower it
but we will have to disconnect the belt we'll probably have to pull the pulley space to remove the pump but before we do any of that there is a power steering fluid usually gets everywhere
so what i like to do is i like to get a piece of cardboard and slide it before we touch any lines or anything we want to drain as much fluid out of the reservoir as we
and all you need is something simple like a turkey baster to pull the fluid and suck the fluid right out of the reservoir and in this case i have a to collect all the old fluid the more fluid we could get out now the
leak out and make a huge mess which is why i always do this first we removed a bunch of fluid and let's get the lid back on there and this reservoir so we might as well disconnect the air box so that we could
two bolts right here so loosen up the first bolt good that's one and then loosen up the second one good can remove the mass airflow sensor from our air box on the side here you can see
is a tab we could pop off with our finger and pop off the tab on the other and then the mass airflow sensor could be removed so with our mass airflow sensor removed normally there would be a couple of fasteners those plastic clips
that hold this piece in right here but this is loose and ready can remove the air box by giving it a and with all that removed we have plenty of room to get to our reservoir now the
reservoir has two hoses connected to it we have a cooler hose that runs this way and we have a feeder hose that goes to the power steering pump under the car anything here first thing we need to do is go under the car and remove the power
and removing the pump is pretty simple we want to get this pulley off first the belt is attached so this doesn't spin then we'll take the pulley off and there's two lines we have a high
a low pressure line in the back and then it's held in by three bolts thing to do is break all three of these pulley bolts loose while the belt is to help prevent that pulley from just spinning as we loosen these bolts
now we need to remove the belt tension and this car uses a t50 torx for the tensioner so get your ratchet on the tensioner pulley and turn clockwise to and now we can slide the belt off the pulley like so now there's no reason to
so let's tuck it out of the way so it's easy to install later and finally let's finish removing the three bolts holding that power steering pulley in okay so with all three bolts removed hopefully this pulley will just pop
right off and of course it won't because it's not going to come off without a so you want to be careful because this pulley is actually made of plastic most but this one has to be made of something that we could easily break
without a fight and talk about easily breaking you see that pulley so we are gonna have to there's some more replace this pulley anyway but let's just say your pulley's in good
damage it what you're going to do is get a pry bar under the pulley and then you're going to lightly pry it outwards so i'm prying with my screwdriver just outwards a little bit and then i'm going to rotate this and
rotate it and you're just going to repeat that until this pops off which this is not popping off i might have to break it right here let's see
you live in an area where there might be rust a little bit of rust on here rust even if we did get it off you can see there's some cracks on here so this is definitely going to have to get replaced but there you go so we have access to
undo bolt there there's a bolt there and then there's a bolt back there before we unbolt it we need to keep it bolted in so we can loosen these power
so grab a wrench if you have a flare nut wrench that would fit in here that would wrench and this doesn't fit in there up it does room we have until we hit the sway bar which is
able to turn this with this wrench and as always if you have the right i actually never use this set i have a set of flare nut crows foot wrenches we need a 17 millimeter and this is going to make it a lot
easier to get that fastener loose so flare nut wrenches are designed to like that and then connect the square end of your torque all right and that nut is loose so now
then we can pop the line out of the pump and have a catch can ready because residual fluid in the pump and you can see we have almost no fluid first drain the reservoir way less fluid means way less of a mess
all right so with our high pressure line removed now we need to get the low one time use crimp on hose connector so get a flathead screwdriver in there and then we can push the hose off the power steering pump like so and finally with
pump now at the front here there are two this first one up good and then break the second one free good so now with both of these bolts removed from the front of the bracket we
at the back of the pump so if we go around to this side right next to the tie rod there's a gap where we could access that last bolt right there so we're gonna need a long extension to get to this bolt
and feed that extension in through there now we just need to get it onto the bolt and break it loose beautiful then we can unscrew it the rest of the way and with that bolt out our pump is loose and we should be able to remove it
right in this gap like that perfect so out with the old and in with the new now you can see the new pump does not have this bracket on and in the back so we're gonna have to take the bracket off of this and put it
pump and then for the pulley this is just a cheap plastic pulley that got there's no way we could reuse this so i got a new aluminum one it's a little bit heavier but it won't get damaged it won't crack easily and it's a lot more
so let's swap over the bracket from the old pump to the new one and we could loose the three fasteners and removing them all the way and then swap it directly over to the new pump so we know it's installed in the correct
now before screwing this in add some medium strength thread locker to the loosening them up hand tighten all three fasteners and torque them down to spec in this case 16 foot-pounds
good now we can remove the rear bracket from the pump so break both bolts free we can transfer this to the new pump but first remember to add your medium shrink thread locker to the threads then orient the bracket properly onto
hand tighten those bolts in and torque them down to 16 foot pounds and as always anytime you install new parts i always like to make sure they so just give it a quick look make sure it looks identical and this does
hoses go all line up and this is the same exact size we're good to go same thing with our new pulley very is aluminum we want to make sure they are the same exact size
the same exact number of ribs and these two are fits right on our pump so we are good to go and real quick here's the old pump let's open it up and see
if we could tell where it failed and would you look at that broke off and is seizing up this pump and isn't and if we remove the part that does the pumping check it out the shaft that
that's supposed to be connected right there and then when the pulley spins the not anymore now that's pretty cool to see how this pump failed so let's replace it now before we go and install our brand
fluid to get in the new pump and contaminate it so let's replace the old and to do that is really simple there's one bolt right here which clamps this once you remove that you can pull the reservoir out now there's two hoses here
at the power steering pump we don't have to worry about disconnecting it here this hose though is connected right here which goes into a cooler and we do need to disconnect this right down here and when we disconnect the
steering fluid into the alternator so i'm going to use some aluminum foil to extra fluid that might drip out now let's break open the crimped hose good and don't worry this is going to get replaced with a screw-on hose clamp
trick to removing hoses that are stuck on there good is to twist the hose to break it loose you hear that snap that's exactly what and that's how you loosen a hose that's almost 20 years old and has over 250 000
and then finally let's loosen the reservoir clamp bolt and once that's we can pull the reservoir right out like so so out with the old and broken you can hear that filter in there is loose
and in with the new and that's good to go now you can see we have a hose that steering pump i'm gonna reinstall a new hose that came with the kit right on this one and we're just gonna make sure we have the hose in
the correct spot so it's gonna go on this right here and hose clamp and we will slide it right on just like that now any time you tighten down a hose clamp onto a plastic part like this
because you could crack that plastic nipple that it slides over with that won't come off and that's not going anywhere where the new pump will be installed then we can get the reservoir into the
and then we could snug up the bolt clamping in the reservoir good on the cooler line then we can connect it to the reservoir and tighten down the hose clamp until it's snug perfect and that's not coming
beautiful so our brand new reservoir is in there our two hoses are connected we need to replace and that's these right here the high pressure lines so let's go under the car and replace them here's our rotted old
line that is barely hanging on and here is our nice new line so the disconnect this right here so let's loosen up this bolt and remove it and then now with the line disconnected from the subframe we need
so let's break the bolt loose from the steering rack and unscrew it the rest of the way by hand and then carefully remove the line and steering rack because we don't want to double up on these crush washers when we
go to install the new one good so out with the old and in with the first we want to get the mounting bracket tightened down to hold the line in place and with that bolted in now we can bolt in the other side
to grab your banjo bolt that we removed before washer from this bolt and replace it with a nice new crush washer that came then put the bolt through the line and then we need to add one more crush
it sandwiches our new high pressure line and this will seal it to the power now let's hand tighten that bolt into the rack to make sure it's not cross and once it's hand tightened all the way torque it down to 26 foot pounds
now this torque is important to compress the crush washers to prevent any leaks all right so now let's install the new power steering pump so just get it in like that and then grab a fastener which i already put thread locker on
the other fastener hand tighten it in then torque both of these down to 16 foot pounds that's one and that's the other now get that last bolt onto the long extension and we're gonna feed that all
back behind the pump we have to get that bolt threaded it down as well all right so with all three now we can connect the two lines to the power steering pump so let's start by
getting the low pressure line attached and i'm doing this from above so it's just by feel i can't see and i think right there is where i need perfect so slide that on there until the hose bottoms out against the end of the
and then all we need to do is tighten the hose clamp down so it's snug pressure line and i have a little bit of power steering fluid on my finger to line so it doesn't pinch when we go and install it
and thread that nut into the pump by hand can slide the crow's foot wrench over the nut and this needs to be tightened down to 25 foot pounds
pulley on get the belt on fill it up with power steering fluid bleed it and let's see if it works so let's get our pulley onto the pump locker on each bolt so hand tighten them down
and then get the other one in that's two and finally that's three now we can get the ratchet onto the belt tensioner and loosen that and then we can slip the belt over the power steering pulley and it's a tight
then finally we could torque down all three of our pulley bolts to 16 foot pounds pump installed we have one thing left to install
in place like so pop that mass airflow sensor in then we have these two bolts that we need to tighten down until snug and finally snap the mass airflow sensor back in on both sides
and with the mass airflow sensor secured now we have one thing steering system now it's very important that you use the steering system you just did all this work
up so check your owner's manual make sure you're using the correct fluid in this case we're using full synthetic and right on the label it says it's made for bmws so it has all the additives we need to keep this system running good
in there and man oh man am i excited to drive it hasn't been fun to drive at all because the steering is horrible lot of effort to steer okay so two 12-ounce bottles later we
and you can see i purposely over-filled it because once we turn the car on our new pump is gonna suck all this fluid into the system and we don't want all right so now we're gonna bleed the power steering system and in order to do
and turn the steering wheel from lock to lock so let's start her up one direction and then go back the other way to lock
now in the beginning this is going to be a little tough to do because there is no power steering fluid in the line so we're literally not using power is brand new what we're trying to do is force that power steering fluid
into the lines into the pump and into the power steering rack so that's all there for about a second or two and then we're gonna go back in the other direction and again all the way to lock in the
other direction forcing that air out and pushing the brand new fluid in there and we should be able to do this in steering pump nice and light but right now it's
okay and that's locking the other direction and then go back direction and then go back oh man this is definitely not easy to do but it's definitely getting lighter oh there we go baby
all right so man that is a workout but that is what i'm talking about look at this this is perfect so now we have forced the power steering pump is a little noisy
getting new fluid in and that's all there is to it so bring it back and forth from lock to lock again about five times or until you hear that power steering pump quiet down and the steering is nice and soft and
is we're going to go check the power steering fluid reservoir we're going to top it off and then we're going to go for a ride we're good to go into the pump and power steering lines which is good so let's fill her up and
it looks like we're gonna need almost the whole bottle so in total we job good now tighten the cap and then remove and don't worry if it's frothy like that that's just the new fluid getting
lot of air in there it'll bubble out over time and as you can see we are filled all the way up so we're good to go and now that it's not making any more noise and it's not taking any more fluid
leaks just do a quick inspection and look for any drips and everything looks good and the fittings at the pump are drip free as well so we are good to go so that's all there is to it you just
steering pump now go take your car for a nice long test drive and enjoy your new all right and back from the test drive that steering is smooth as butter it is and we're no longer getting a workout every time we go and drive the car
so that's exactly what you want now if you have a bunch of left over your local recycle center you could bring it to some parts stores it for you and you can see why i recommended using one of these pieces of
a little bit dirty and that makes nice and easy so there you go that's everything you needed to know reservoir and power steering lines in your car or
how to do it so hopefully the video was helpful if it you're not a subscriber consider hitting that subscribe button and as always all the tools and products i used in this video are linked in the
i used in this video are linked in the description