Bloodred86

yea..I've never heard of priming a power steering pump and neither has my local mechanic. Always just put them on and bled the system.

Anyone know how to prime a P/S pump? I assume its just hooking up the input and turning it by hand to fill it, but i wanna make sure before i ruin a 300$ part.

Kneale Brownson

Whenever I reinstall a power steering pump, I hook up the hoses but leave the high pressure connections loose. Then I put oil in the reservoir and spin the pump pulley by hand until oil appears at the loose connections. I find I lose way less oil that way as opposed to trying to fill the pump before installing it.

I've read several reports of ruined pumps from using the engine to turn the pulley, especially with the high pressure lines torqued.

If you want to flush the system, you can disconnect the return line from the rack to the reservoir and redirect it into a container while running the engine/pump and keeping a minimum level of new oil in the reservoir.

"Bleeding" the Audi hydraulic system amounts to raising the front wheels off the ground and turning the steering wheel from lock to lock rapidly and repeatedly while running the engine. That process sends any air in the system to the reservoir, where it is vented.

Bloodred86

I meant prime, not bleed. Typo.

audiqv8

Kneale's method will prime the pump.