With the recent cold weather in Northern VA area, my power steering on the STI has started to get insanely loud. The steering still works and is smooth, and there was no signs of leakage.
I googled power steering whine and searched on iwsti and nasioc. Apparently, there is a quick fix people recommend that involves changing out one o-ring before spending a lot of money to switch out the power steering pump. Since I only had the noise for 2 quick drives (total of 20 miles max), I figured I would give it a shot.
I ordered 10mm x 14mm x 2mm rubber o-rings from advance autoparts, per the specs on nasioc and this youtube video I watched of someone changing their o-ring. About a week later (and three trips where advance did NOT have the o-rings in despite telling me they were ready for pickup), I got the o-rings and gave it a shot. WRONG size! I went back to advance and bought a variety pack. I managed to get 2 sizes that were very close and took the smaller one and jammed it in.
During my trip to advance auto, my power steering fluid leaked enough to get onto the header and now the car was a little low. Luckily, I had checked the fluid level so I caught it before the reservoir was empty. I went back to advance and got some ATF Dexron III and topped it off. After driving it around a little bit, the whine is gone! All that is left is to keep an eye out for leaks and to check it on a few more cold starts to verify the noise is gone. If this works, I spent under $20 to fix it! (that includes 2 variety packages of o-rings, 4 of the o-ring I originally ordered, and a bottle of dexron III ATF).
