Hello everyone,

I have a 2009 C70. It has about 135,000 miles on it. Recently I noticed that when I start the car and start driving, it makes an odd high pitched sound (not like a normal power steering pump whine, but I don’t want to draw conclusions yet). The sound STARTS only AFTER I start to drive, and then it only happens while i’m MOVING and the tires are STRIAGHT. If I come to a complete stop, the sound will gradually get a higher pitch as I slow down until the tires stop moving, when the sound basically goes away. ADITIONALLY, the sound goes AWAY while moving when I give a sudden steering input in either direction. It is very prominent with no music on at low speeds, but I’m guessing it’s still there at high speeds, and I just can’t hear it.

This morning, while trying to troubleshoot, I checked the power steering fluid (took the passenger headlight out to access the reservoir), and noticed that there was no dip stick on the cap or any way to see a min/max fill line. When I look inside of the pump, I can’t tell, but it looks like the fluid is low (see pictures attached). I checked the service interval for power steering fluid flushes, and the Volvo manual said that there was no required changes and the fluid was lifetime (see screenshot).

Let me know if anyone has any ideas. I appreciate everyone taking the time to help me diagnose this problem. Thank you.

 

Some additional details - it’s about the loudest (or most noticeable) at around 15 mph. After starting to drive from a complete stop or a sudden steering wheel input, it takes about a second to come back. When the car is stationary and idling, when you put in any input in the steering the pump makes the same noise until you stop the input, and it never makes noise when the car is not moving UNLESS you move the wheel. Everything points towards pump (I feel like), but it’s so hard to actually flush the system because of where the pump is and how it’s not meant to be serviced.

 

Today I changed the fluid on my P1 2009 C70. I just used a turkey baster, took off the cap, pulled as much out as I could, refilled with new fluid, turned wheel lock to lock, flushed again, and refilled until it reached the bottom of the neck (definitely more than there was before, ended up using a qt and a half, so buy around 2qts if you want to flush it multiple times, I don’t think multiple times would be totally needed, but I wanted to anyways). I think that refilling probably would’ve fixed the sound, but (despite Volvo saying no change is ever needed), I’m happy I changed the fluid after 135,000 miles. I think I didn’t get ALL of the old fluid out, but leaving a bit of the “indestructible” fluid in there won’t hurt much. Hope this helps anyone with a P1 Volvo and Power Steering Fluid issues.