Whine from car after replacing head gasket. Possible power steering hose issue?

[a.ssjgoku]

I recently got the head gasket replaced on my car. As soon as I picked the car from the mechanic, I started hearing a whining noise from the front of the car. I took it back to him, and he now tells me that the power
steering hose needs to be replaced. Description of the whining noise

1. Happens when the car is cold (in the morning) or when I'm driving in the city or traffic. Basically, at
low speeds and when I'm accelerating.

2. On the highways, when cruising, I barely hear it. Seems like once the car reaches a smooth drive,
the nose disappears.

3. To rule out any transmission issues, I put the car in neutral, and Rev the engine. I can hear the whine
even then, leading me to believe that it's not transmission related

4. I hear the whine when making turns as well, though I haven't experienced any steering issues

My questions are
1. Is it possible that the mechanic messed up when assembling my engine?
2. How common of a problem is this?

My car has 110000 miles. My car has an automatic transmission.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Depending on the engine, they might have had to remove and reattach the power steering hose when they did the head gasket. But if they did that, I think they'd have had to drain and fill the power steering system - the fluid would be one of the replacement parts listed on your invoice.*

Replacing hoses is usually an age thing - they degrade with time. (110k miles in 5 years or 20?) Could just be a coincidence.

If it were your steering system, I'd expect the noise to be worse when it's cold, and intermittent (you should only notice it when you're actually turning the wheel.) But I'm just some guy on the internet.

*Unless it was a vacuum hose... that actually sounds more in line with what you're describing.

 

[RLGL]

Sounds like air is being induced into the PS. There may be a slight fluid leak at the source. Use a leak detector fluid to find it using a black light.

 

[mindless1]

If it is not leaking fluid (nor low on fluid, top it off if low then watch the fluid level in the reservoir fo r a while) then you don't need a new hose(s).

Seems more like there's just air in the system. It can happen if the mechanic had a line off and forgot to bleed air out after refilling it, or on some vehicles something as simple as turning the steering wheel with the engine off can get air in. If the mechanic drained the power steering and forgot to fill it again before running the engine after the repair, the pump might be damaged, but that won't damage the hoses.

The basic procedure to get the air out is top off the reservoir then just drive the vehicle turning the steering wheel ALL the way to the left, and all the way to the right a few times while driving.

IF you don't see any leaks then your mechanic's diagnosis seems very questionable, either incompetent or lying about your needing a hose job.

One other thing I'd wonder about is whether it's belt related, if your serpentine belt has a bad tensioner and didn't pick up enough slack when the belt was put back on, or some fluid got on the belt while the head gasket was being done, so now the belt is squealing under certain loads and temperatures. A whining sound is a lot closer to what the power steering pump would make than a belt, but that's just my subjective opinion...

Might help if you mentioned the make, model, and engine in the car.

Since it can be heard in neutral revving the engine, you might get a helper involved to rev it while you're looking around under the hood, but the first thing I'd do is check under the car for leaks and the fluid level in the reservoir.

 

[HitAnyKey]

As soon as I read this I thought maybe your bearings are gone?

Does this sound familiar ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7w0n1rmfeo

 

[Raizinman]

I often hear a whine in my car, but when I drop her off at work it tends to go away.