QuestionMy 2000 Hyundai Elantra 2.0 L, has had a squeal over the past several months that has increasingly gotten worse. We noticed the pulley for the power steering pump was sticking and assumed that the pump was bad. We replaced that this morning with no change in the squealing and loss of power steering at times. We had a mechanic just take a look at it, and he showed us that it appeared the harmonic balancing pulley was sticking as well which he thought was causing the power steering to stick and cause the squealing. My question is, does this sound right, and is it a fixable problem in my home garage with basic socket sets and an impact wrench, or does it need to go to the shop, and how much money will it cost me?
AnswerThis could be right, but I question it.
Presuming the diagnosis is correct, and the outside of the crankshaft pulley (AKA harmonic balancer) remains still while the center is turning, you should be able to verify this looseness by pulling on or prying on the outside of the pulley. Additionally, you should be able to see the outside of the crankshaft pulley not turning when this problem occurs.
Be advised that the power steering belt *does not* go around the crankshaft pulley. It runs between the power steering pump pulley and the water pump pulley.
The vast majority of the time I've seen the issue you describe, the issue is that the alternator/water pump belt is not tensioned properly, causing the water pump to not turn when the squealing occurs, in turn causing the power steering pump to not turn. If this is your issue, retensioning the alternator belt should resolve the problem.
If you do need to replace the crankshaft pulley, you should be able to do it with your basic tools and an impact wrench. Simply remove the alternator and a/c belts with your hand tools and use the impact wrench to remove the center bold from the crankshaft pulley.
