Looking at one of the online parts sites, they show the updated resevoir (from 53701-SHJ-A01 to 53701-SHJ-A02) but the same cap (part 53697-SB3-952), so the parts guy is probably correct - we had ours replaced under warranty, so I don't know if it came with a new cap or not - however, whatever cap it has on there now is on there as well as it was before... maybe check the neck of the resevoir to see if it's damaged?

 

Loose cap too

I bought a new reservoir as well and it came without a cap. The old cap is very loose (there's no tension at all). Did you try driving with the cap? When I used the old plastic and rubber band method, it just popped off. Do you know whether the cap is supposed to let out air? I did notice that there's is a notch at each "level" that allows air to go through. I have a 2006 Touring. BTW, when I did the post replacement bleed, I saw a lot of foaming and a harsh screeching sound, I imagine from the P/S pump. I am at this point too concerned to try to drive it without some answers. Always one step forward and two steps back!

 

Yes, the PSF reservoir needs to breathe through the cap. The system needs to be vented to the atmosphere. FWIW, the "updated" reservoir took away the pump whine noise on my 2008, but I still have the major stiffness when trying to do low/no speed wheel maneuvers.

Joel

 

Yes, the PSF reservoir needs to breathe through the cap. The system needs to be vented to the atmosphere. FWIW, the "updated" reservoir took away the pump whine noise on my 2008, but I still have the major stiffness when trying to do low/no speed wheel maneuvers.

Joel

Can you tell how "loose" your cap is? My old cap has no tension at all and just sits on the neck. If people have safely driven with a loose cap, then I will rest much easier. I think my top might have popped off because I sealed it with plastic and rubber band. Thanks in advance.

 

My cap is in there pretty good, meaning it takes some twisting/pulling action to remove it. It's kind of a cheezy setup though, basically it's just an interference type fit where the ribs/rings on the inside of the cap go into the filler hole. You would want a fairly tight fit with it since as you've seen, pressure in the system will force it out. I'm not sure if the dealer used my old cap or put a new one on. All the write-up said was they replaced the reservoir per the TSB, supposedly flushed the PSF and they put a new suction hose since they thought mine was collapsing under load- which is still feels like it's doing when I get the stiff wheel.

Joel

 

I had to reuse my old cap with my new reservoir also ... and it was loose. I just bent the "friction tabs" that grab on the inside diameter of the fill hole down a little, and it got to a tightness level that seemed about right to me.

 

Finished P/S Resevoir Repairs

My repair was successful, though more eventful than anticipated. Although I subsequently read about it in a different thread, I made a mistake in the flushing process. I didn't tighten down the hose that I connected to the return tube. So the hose came out of the bottle and sprayed all over the place. Lesson learned. I plugged the hole of the receptacle vessel with paper towel so that the hose was tightly in place.

The second thing that I learned is that with the old cap sitting so loose in the new reservoir, I put a plastic sheet over the cap and tightened with a rubber band. All the air coming back to the reservoir popped the cap out. There is no need as far as I can tell to have a tight fitting cap. In fact, during the bleeding process, I think the cap can even be left open. The cap allows air to come in and out anyway. There is a lot of air pressure building in the reservoir and air needs to get out.

The third thing is how much noise the pump makes as it is bleeding the air. I had to fill to the top line, turn on the engine, and move the steering wheel side to side to bleed. I repeated this process about 7 times before the P/S system as a whole got all of the air out. Even after the 7th time, I drove the car for about 50 miles and had to top it off a bit more. The noise is horrendous and scary and for the uninitiated, a real scare factor.

When the bleeding is done, the P/S system got very quiet and I would say despite the detour a total success.

Thanks everyone on this thread and Ira who emailed with tips.

Hope someone else can benefit from the experience.

 

Just a general comment. I bought an 05 Odyssey and had brief power steering faliure at low speeds and eventually discovered that the power steering fluid res. cap was missing. The dealer I bought it from bought me a new cap and put it on and I have had no problems since. I like cheap easy fixes. Now all I have to do is figure out this sudden vibration (shudder) at 35mph that goes away when I accelerate or decellerate. Can anyone lead me to the right issue. Ive read so many different ideas but am not sure exactly what it is.

 

It's either your engine mount or tc

 

I own a 2005 Odyssey EXL. Iwas wondering if anybody has had the following problem. I recently changed out my power steering reservoir per the TSB because of the whining/buzzing noise. Before I changed it out the steering worked great at all speeds other than the noise. After changing the reservoir and bleeding the system I've taken it for multiple drives and found the steering is stiff at low speed turns. I questioned the procedure in the TSB because it specifically calls to pump out old fluid when changing the reservoir. You're affectively running the pump dry which I thought could potentially damage the pump. Regardless of this I figured I'd try and bleed the system multiple times to see if I could correct the issue. Didn't work. My next step is changing the pump. Has anybody else had this issue and if so, what would you recommend? Could I have damaged the rack and pinion? Could it be the loose fitting cap over the reservoir?

 

I did the swap on my '05 about 1.5 years ago (on Thanksgiving weekend, 2008 to be precise) exactly per the TSB, and personally have had no issues to date. The vane style pump should be able to tolerate some period of dry running without being damaged, but if it was on the ragged edge of "good" before the TSB was performed due to repeated cavitation, that little bit of dry running may have been enough to put it over the edge.

You can, if you're the adventurous type, get a rebuild kit from Honda for the p/s pump ...

 

Hi einy.. Do you know if there is a part# for the rebuild kit?.. I called my local dealer and they no nothing of any rebuild kit.. they where willing to sell me a new unit..

thanks

I did the swap on my '05 about 1.5 years ago (on Thanksgiving weekend, 2008 to be precise) exactly per the TSB, and personally have had no issues to date. The vane style pump should be able to tolerate some period of dry running without being damaged, but if it was on the ragged edge of "good" before the TSB was performed due to repeated cavitation, that little bit of dry running may have been enough to put it over the edge.

You can, if you're the adventurous type, get a rebuild kit from Honda for the p/s pump ...

 

Looking at BKHONDAPARTS.COM, I am not (now) seeing the individual parts detailed out on the assembly view. This was not the case when I had my original pump fail in November 2007, as I had a self-performed rebuild in mind (per instructions in the factory service manual for my '05, pages 17-15 thru 17-19 - "Pump Overhaul" that details how to get this bugger apart and back together again). In my case, Honda stepped up and replaced my failed pump under a goodwill warranty extension, so I didn't do the rebuild. They wouldn't let me keep the old pump, unfortunately - I was hoping to disassemble it to see what failed, and do a rebuild to keep a fresh one around - just in case. The reservoir replacement that I did on my own was performed almost exactly one year after the pump was replaced, when the new one became noisy again. That cured it (so far - knock on wood!)

I can only speculate that the rebuilding vs. replacing of the pumps proved unpopular, so individual components are no longer available.

Sorry 'bout that ...

 

Now all I have to do is figure out this sudden vibration (shudder) at 35mph that goes away when I accelerate or decellerate. Can anyone lead me to the right issue. Ive read so many different ideas but am not sure exactly what it is.

I have a 2007 Odyssey. Last year, Honda issued recall on this transmission 35mph vibration issue. They first asked to upgrade the software. After upgrading, my car started showing up the vibration issue. I had to go back to dealer. They told me it was because Torque Converter failure. They replaced the Torque Converter and now car runs fine.

 

POWER STEERING RESERVOIR 07 ODY

I just replaced my Power Steering Reservoir with the new one called out in the TSB. The fluid was very dark and is still dark after flushing, I will do it one more time and thats it. THE CAP ON THE OLD RESERVOIR IS TOO LOOSE AND NEEDS REPLACED WITH A NEW ONE. I WENT TO THE DEALER TODAY AND IT MAY BE THE SAME PART NUMBER (CAP) BUT IT IS NOT THE SAME DIAMETER (MUCH LARGER) AS TEH OLD ONE. ANYONE ELSE HAVE THE SAME ISSUE WITH VERY DARK FLUID?

 

My "new reservoir" had a fill hole a little larger than the old one ... I just bent the "catch thingy's (technical term) on the original cap down a bit, and it holds just fine on the new reservoir.

My fluid, once I did the flush / fill / flush / fill ditty per the TSB's instructions was, and remains (16 months after the fact) a reasonable color.

 

I wanted to add a comment regarding the PS reservoir cap. I just replaced mine this past week and I ended up ordering a new cap along with the new-style reservoir (the cap was 75 cents). The parts guy thought the old cap should work fine, but I knew better after reading this forum . Anyway, I tried both the old and new cap on the new reservoir and there's definitely a difference in size. The old one fit very loose (as others have commented) and the new one fits nice and snug.

 

Does the new improved power steering reservoir come with an integral filter? I wanted to put a filter in the PS system, but I thought I would just change the reservoir if that included the filter. The part is cheap enough.

 

My understanding is that a 'filter' is integrated into the PS reservoir, and that the new version of it incorporates an improvement/fix to the filter. If you're going to change it, also get the replacement O-ring for the upper hose on the side that connects to the engine block -- that part is also cheap. I believe the new version of the O-ring is orange, and the old version is black.

 

Now the rest of the story... I had the power steering (3rd one) replaced under warranty last week. It seems my 2006 requires one every 30k miles. The next one will be on me. The fluid is not as clear as I would like. I was going to do a flush of the fluid once since everything is new. I was thinking of adding a Cardone filter as extra insurance. The $15 filter may protect the $150 pump.

The Cardone filter is 200 micron with a magnet in line. I was wondering what the level of filtration that comes with the stock reservoir. Has anyone seen it?

 

Just my 2 cents:

I don't know the level of filtration that the reservoirs have, but I'm just wondering if you are aware of the bottom line issue with the old reservoirs: The level of filtration was too high meaning that the filter got plugged up with debris and thus starved the pump of fluid. I don't know that adding another filter is the best idea. Either it will filter better than the new reservoir and introduce the same problem that the original reservoir caused or filter less than the new reservoir and you will have gained nothing.

Am I thinking about this correctly?

 

The PS reservoir may be the reason you are on your 3rd PS pump. There is a TSB specifically on the defective PS reservoir starving the pump resulting in failure. Change the reservoir.

 

I already have the improved reservoir and I have had it for a while. (At least one pump's worth.) The dealer installed it per the TSB. I was wondering what the level of filtration is on this part.

I have ordered a second filter just to be redundant. It has a magnet and a filter.

Deive Safe,

Joe

 

You may have a problem with your steering rack. It could be bad and contaminating the PS fluid, thus causing a premature failure in the PS Pump. You may want to have that checked before you burn through another PS Pump

 

We just had the pump and reservoir replaced last night. First thing I noticed was how loose the red cap is. I am sure if I hit a big enough bump that sucker is popping right off.

 

I replaced my pump reservoir last year and ordered a new cap with it. Even though the part# is the same for the old and new cap, there is definitely a size difference between the two.

 

I just bent the "friction tabs" that grab on the inside diameter of the fill hole down a little, and it got to a tightness level that seemed about right to me.

Just did the same to mine, works fine. But a new one at $1.35 certainly couldn't hurt!

 

The level of filtration was too high meaning that the filter got plugged up with debris and thus starved the pump of fluid.

Last weekend I replaced my PS fluid and reservoir. I cut the reservoir in half to see what the screen looked like. Above is a photo. This is with well over 100k miles on it. There was more debris in the fluid that I purged from the lines and rack. The particles from the lines and rack were larger on average.

After seeing what was in my filter, I agree with the above statement that a filter any finer could certainly clog and cause flow problems.