Timing Belt/Water Pump replaced, now power steering noise?
 

Hi-

Last Wednesday I had my timing belt replaced, along with the tensioner and idler as well as the water pump. Now, a few days after the power steering has begun to whine/groan when turning the steering wheel. The whine/groan doesn't occur all the time, but at least 50% of the time.

Can this be associated with the timing belt change and did the shop do something wrong? I have not checked the power steering fluid level, but plan on doing this evening, this noise was not occurring prior to the t-belt change, etc. I'll be dropping the car off at the shop tonight to have them look at it, but want to be as knowledgeable as possible when speaking with them, in case this is a error on their end.

Some info. on the car.

-2003 S60 2.4T
-94K miles

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

See above. The shop probably emptied the power steering reservoir in order to move it out of the way to do the TB job. They may have either not sufficiently refilled it or refilled it with the wrong fluid. I believe Volvo specifies "ATF" as the power steering fluid for your car. So, Dexron III or equivalent. I use Mobil 1 Synthetic ATF.

Thanks - that makes sense and will plan to look at it/top off if needed.

If they refilled it with the wrong fluid, I assume I need to drain the existing fluid in there, is there any easy way to do that or would a turkey baster or the similar do the trick?

Why don't you find out what they did, which fluid they used first. Volvo does specify a cold-weather fluid (Pentosin CHF 11S) which should not be mixed with ATF. Even then that's not a disaster, but all the fluid would need to be flushed.