Greetings, friends. Well, my faithful 2003 Camry LE 2.4 with 196k miles suddenly started making a loud whining noise from the engine compartment. Everything checks out except, the power steering reservoir was low to the minimum level. I topped it up, but the sound remains. I know the power rack has been leaking a bit and I have a new one to replace it. I’m thinking the pump is dying, but I thought I’d throw this one out for consideration of the group. The sound isn’t continuous, but the warmer the engine gets, the more frequent the sound - and louder. Anything I might be overlooking would be appreciated.
Sure sounds like your pump is dying. Refresh the entire system with the new rack. New pump and new hoses, too.
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You could remove the belt that drives the PS pump as an experiment, see if the sound stops. Good opportunity to check everything on that belt path, hand turning the pulleys checking for weird sounds. Beware, water pump could be on that path too, so idle engine only very briefly, 30 seconds to a minute max to avoid engine overheating.