About 6 months ago my PSPump failed. Massive bearing whine.

So I replaced it and the lines. About a week later the rack failed and had a slow constant leak. I assume the old pump weakened with age and the new one was back up to the correct pressure. The old tired rack couldn’t handle it.

sadly at the time I couldn’t afford to replace it so had to run it for a couple of weeks like that and tried to keep ontop of topping it up. Sometimes however it did get quite low.

Fast forward to now and the new pump has massive whine. Not bearing whine but the power steering pump whine I’m used to hearing on some old transits.

So I assume the pump is shot and needs replacing, including lines because of that stupid high pressure union.

So my question, could I get a cheap eBay special pump again? Is the early failure because of the rack leak? Or are these things junk and was likely to fail regardless of the rack issue?

Just wondering if the more expensive pumps and recommended or if I just had an unfortunate series of events with my new cheaper pump.

Thanks all

I also had a ps leak recently. Looked at getting the pump changed at a garage ,so got some quotes in the £500 -£800 region. Decided that was too much on a 120k+ mile car that I’m not planning to keep longer than this year.

Went the eBay route. 100£ pump and pipes. Got fitted, still leaked ps. Got bottle changed, leak stopped.

Ps is now fully functional, but still has a slight whine. Whether that’s the ebay pump just being not as good, I don’t know. I’ve heard the eBay pumps can vary in quality alot

most of the leaks (if the high pressure pipe isn't fractured) is the joke clips ford use on the bottle they do nothing

the bottle is fine just fit decent worm drive clips and do them up gently - rather than the NOTHING the ford spring clips provide

5 hours ago, Botus said:

most of the leaks (if the high pressure pipe isn't fractured) is the joke clips ford use on the bottle they do nothing

the bottle is fine just fit decent worm drive clips and do them up gently - rather than the NOTHING the ford spring clips provide

That’s interesting. As the bottle that came off didn’t appear to have a leak on it. The mechanic I used also changed the pipe that went into it. So where is it you’re saying the problem lies? I’m not that mechanical myself, so if you could explain as simply as possible, that would be great

The fluid reservoir bottle on my 1.6 had a hairline crack at the corner of one of the plastic hose connections moulded into the bottle.

It was very difficult to see when it was fitted. I also cut the rubber hose back and added a new piece with an inline connector where the old hose had started to split at the connection end.

On 2/5/2026 at 2:41 PM, Bazbluebadge said:

That’s interesting. As the bottle that came off didn’t appear to have a leak on it. The mechanic I used also changed the pipe that went into it. So where is it you’re saying the problem lies? I’m not that mechanical myself, so if you could explain as simply as possible, that would be great

if you see the other reply about a crack - that is possible especially as no room - so as people mess about and abuse stuff under the bonnet without realising things get broken - but 9 out of 10 times the clips ford used do not provide sufficient clamping force upon reuse - particularly on a used pipe that has some slight ridge marks (where the useless ford spring clips hardly did their job)

when it was applied bone dry at the factory without a drop of grease or oil the tiny ford pressure clips just allowed it to get passed warranty - 5 mins later it weeps, and if you ever try to reuse the pipe - a smear of old oil on the joint means it leaks like a sieve