Over the last few months the power steering has started feeling a bit heavy, over that 2 month period i've had the power steering warning light come on twice. It's generally been feeling ok but heavier than it should be, the mode was in the sport setting. Today i changed the setting to normal, i heard a couple of rumble type groans for a short while, they didn't last but the steering still felt heavier than it should be.  I presume it's a problem with the pump, any ideas and is this common ?

My car is a 2008 Titanium 1.8 petrol, i believe their are a couple of different types of power steering pumps on the Focus of around this year, does anybody know which version mine would be and a Ford part number if possible just incase i need a pump ?

 

 

 

Anyone ?

I rang Ford this morning and apparently my car has an electric power steering pump, the price of a new one is £600  lol 

They also do an exchange where you give them your old unit and they'll give you a reconditioned one for the bargain price of £300 

Does anyone know the part number for this for the year and model of my car as i may try a few other places and possibly ebay etc.

Have you considered trying to get your pump reconditioned if it is indeed the pump? I imagine it will be a lot less than a new one!

I need the car for work, it would be off the road for at least 1 - 2 weeks if i sent it away to be reconditioned. That wouldn't be an option for me like with most people who need their car for work.

Eurocarparts have some, i'd ignore the first one but the others are priced at £449-484 - TRW appears to be a German aftermarket brand. You get a portion of the purchase price back when you give them your old pump - for the £484 one it's £279 back which then makes the pump around £200ish.

 

Send your VIN along to fordpartsuk.com and they will send you the correct part number for your car so you can be sure which one you are getting.

Before changing the electric/hydraulic power steering pump you should check the wiring first. Water ingress inside the connectors of the wiring harness can cause the wiring to corrode. As a result of this the electric/hydraulic power steering pump can stop working. This is a pretty common problem on Focus Mk2/MK2.5 vehicles with the electric/hydraulic power steering system.

Just a quick one on the power steering pump.

When my car was in for a full service the mechanic said he topped up the power steering fluid as it was fractionally on the low side, he said the filler bottle was located behind one of the headlights. 

I was under the impression that the electric power steering pumps didn't need topping up with fluid, am I wrong on that, think I read it on here on a power steering pump search.

Your car has an electric/hydraulic power steering system. This is basically a conventional hydraulic power steering system but instead of being powered by the engine it is powered by an electric motor. Being a hydraulic system the power steering fluid needs to be at the correct level. If not it needs to be topped up.

 

Newer Ford models (like for example the Focus MK3/MK3.5 have a full electric power steering system. This type of system does not have any hydraulics.

Thanks JW

In your previous reply you said to check the connections first for water ingress, are the connections easy to get at without taking the pump off. 

I'm not a mechanic but fairly mechanically minded, if the power steering fluid level bottle is just behind the headlight can you get at the connections to check them by removing the headlight ? Is it the nearside or offside headlight where the fluid filler bottle is located ?

 

Bump for the above, cheers