the other day I hit a huge pothole in the road, stopped, checked, seemingly no damage. Still drives straight but steering v. slightly heavier. Probably alignment is out. But there's a new noise, a whirring from the front when doing very low speed sharp left turns.

Any thoughts as to what this is?

I have this too. prtty sure its the drive shaft. do you get vibrations when trying to cruis(usually up a hill) at around 60ish kms?

Is the noise in line with engine RPM or vehicle speed or anything?

My TS does that too, whirring noise on left turns, and steering wheel vibration at 110 kph,but I put that down to wear and tear. I've yet to pull it apart but I suspect a worn wheel bearing from an overtightened axle shaft nut, or wear/ lack of lubrication in the drive shaft itself.

I took it to Pedders, they could find nothing wrong with it, but they didn't charge me anything. I got home and checked the power steering fluid and it took 400ml!

All is now fine. Doesn't seem to be leaking fluid. I've never checked it, just relied on the Mitsi dealer servicing........

I got home and checked the power steering fluid and it took 400ml!

All is now fine. Doesn't seem to be leaking fluid. I've never checked it, just relied on the Mitsi dealer servicing........


You know better now, don't you? lol Keep an eye on the level though. If air gets into the pump it froths up the oil, and it can take a long time for the air to come out. The power steering pump might be a bit noisy for a while but doesn't harm it. That's probably the whirring you have been hearing.

I'd be a bit worried about where the 400ml of fluid went to - apart from a visiual check for leaks, you could try squeezing the rack boots to see if the fluid had leaked into them.

Not uncommon for a reservoir that never gets checked to do this, my 2 TSs get checked regularly and I've used about 1L of power steering fluid between them in the last 5 years. No major leaks obvious. Well, one is quite oily around the top of the steering rack. Even my wife's 2004 Lancer with only 26,000 km on needed topping up the other day, first time from new, the only leak I can find is a thin spray from the front pump seal onto the underside of the bonnet. lol

on checking the bottle, 400ml is a mistake, more like 300. But I still cant see any obvious leaks, just a few slightly damp areas. I will keep a much better eye on this in future. Hako, thanks for that tip, I'll check the boots.