i got in an accident last week and when i got the car back from the body shop the power steering fluid was leaking. it's definitely coming from the pump/housing cause it got all over my brand new belts. i've filled it up once but it didn't last very long. if i leave it dry for a few days to a week will that damage the pump???

 

Remove your belt & your problem is solved for a little while.

 

no it wont damage the pump, you need to do as mtber says and take the belt off til you get the problem fixed, you may end up liking it without power steering.

 

In some cases you could just reseal the power steering pump and reseal your pump or just replace it. (Honda reseal kit) And replace the belt to. If the hose is leaking also replace that. If the pump is noisy I would replace it.

When you do. Make sure you cycle the ingnition without starting the vehicle so you don't stave the pump and cause extra added wear on the bearing then would lead to probably having to replace the pump again or noisy pump.

 

The pump won't have no defects, just you won't have power steering, but until you get it fied you should remove the belt and let your car stand without powersteering. You can fix your power steering with a pressure tester. It's a hand pump with a gauge and tube that go within the power steering reservoir. Easy to use: You Pump the tester up to the required PSI listed on your power steering cap and then watch the gauge's setting, if/ifnot it stays at that required psi for a minute. If it drops before the minute is over you know you definitely have a leak within the pump and you'll see the power steering fluid oozing out of the external leak area, because of the pressure kicking it out of the internals. You can see where it is and if it's basically a sealing pr4oblem, you can reseal it and place it back in then around your powersteering pump pulley replace the belt with another belt because the belt (serpentine) should be soggy since it had an encounter with the fluid before.