Whining Noise

[Boldeagle]

I have just bought a Galaxy 2.0 TDCi 2006 model & about a day after collecting it i noticed a mild whine when driving. The car has Full dealer service history, which I checked prior to buying the vehicle so maybe just bad luck something is in the need of attention. The noise kicks in when you start to drive & goes off when I have been stationary for a minute or so. On further investigation I have discovered it is appears when turning the steering wheel left & right, but it appear to be coming from the engine compartment not the actual steering wheel itself. I will be taking it back to the dealer, but would be nice to know if anyone else has had a similar issue & knows what is actually is? thanks.

[buford_t_justice]

The noise you describe sounds like the electric power steering and is perfectly normal.

 

Grinding noises are what your looking out for on these because quite a few have had steering racks changed before now.

[NikpV]

just bad luck something is in the need of attention.

 

turning the steering wheel left & right,

"you're going the wrong way ...."

tell her to walk :rolleyes:

[Boldeagle]

Hi, thanks for the response, I didn't notice the whine when I bought the car & took it for a test drive, so was concerned that it was a problem. The first few days of driving the car the noise didn't seem to kick in until driving, but now it is there as soon as you start the engine.

 

Does that mean I will have to put up with the noise as it is annoying? :rolleyes:

 

Is there any components that could be replaced to resolve the noise?

Edited March 7, 2012 by Boldeagle

[Boldeagle]

Hi, thanks for the earlier response, UPDATE. Just spoke to my local Ford dealer. The service guy said worst case senerio it could be the steering rack beginning to break up, the noise is the pump be starved of fluid because the filter in the Fluid bottle is fowling up with debris from the steering rack... Sound pheasible??

 

I have no idea myself :rolleyes: but it does seem to be getting worse hence this repsonse.

[gregers]

private sale or trade?

 

if trade YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO :rolleyes:

[Boldeagle]

Hi I bought it from a dealer. :rolleyes:

[Leestevens12]

mines the same car and has the same whine noise. its your power steering electric motor by your right foot in the engine compartment. noise is more noticeable in the cold weather, and dissapears in warm weather. its a pain but has been like that for 2 years without detriment. believe its very common but not a fault, just a noisy motor!

[gregers]

Hi I bought it from a dealer. :unsure:

 

take it back to them so they can investigate the problem?

[Boldeagle]

Hi lee & Gregers thanks for the comments, the car is in the garage at the moment, so i hope they give it a thorough check, intial thoughts it's not an issue so maybe similar to your noise. The Problem for me is it's got a limited warranty & i'd rather get it sorted if it's an actual fault, but after reading your comment & a previous comment then I am a little more happy. Last thing I want is a bill 3 months down the line when the warranty has expired.

 

It's not getting any worse.....famous last words! so if they come back with no fault found then I will wait till the warmer weather kicks in & see if it goes......before the warranty expires!

[bigjimmyquango]

This sounds exactly like the problem I had with my '07 2.0 tdci. A high-pitched whine that only stops when you're stationery for a short while, and starts up again as soon as you give some steering input.

 

The Ford dealer we bought the car from, and the different Ford dealer we took it back to for investigation both said the same thing that's been quoted above - the noise is an electric motor that drives the power steering pump and that's that. Tough. Cars make noise, just live with it.

 

I've never heard a car make such a loud noise from such an integral component, so I pressed them and had the car checked by an independent mechanic who agreed with me that the noise was unacceptably loud. He also suggested that the cause of the noise wasn't the motor itself, but a vibration in the pipes caused by the motion of the fluid through the pipes at a pinch point.

 

After a lot of arguing with the Ford dealers - and having almost reached the point of going down the route of "rejecting the goods" - they finally found something in their technical system that some of the pipework for the power steering on the early models of this car had been completely redesigned, and that this might fix the problem. Sure enough after a day in the workshop having the new pipes installed the noise went away. Ford themselves never acknowledged that the pipes were the cause of the noise, or even that the noise was unacceptable, but they did the job under warranty for us.

 

This is probably too late for Boldeagle, but I've posted it in the hope that others might benefit from it in the future.