Can you turn power steering pump by hand if seized up

Your steering did NOT seize. Power steering is run from a belt. If the belt breaks and the belt powers the pump and the alternator, you lose power steering and the battery light comes on. You still had steering. What you lost was power assist. You can still turn the wheels, it's just much harder to turn. Get the belt replaced and you should be back in business.

If the belt is not turning, there will be a seized pulley. Possible alternator.. power steering.... water pump... tensioner.... idler pulley ... AC compressor seized. The belt will need to be removed and all the pulleys spun by hand to isolate tone that may be seized

see if you can turn the pump shaft by hand (hub at the end of the shaft. If you can then the pump may be ok. check for idler pulley seized . Any item with bearings that spins easily will be ok. Check that the power steering pump turns by hand.
Pumps will not seize if they are not turning.water pump bearings will produce a deep grumbling rattly noise when idling if they are failing.

sounds like you either lost your fan belt, or you have a seized up alternator, or belt tensioner. The fan belt [ drive belt ] turns the alternator to charge the battery, the power steering pump to make easy steering , and the water pump cooling your engine. Do you smell rubber burning? hear a squealing noise? or rattling noise. Open your engine bonnet, start the car up, and look at the drive belt and pulleys. They should all be turning. If this is the problem you will see something seized up. Also if you have let the power steering pump run out of oil, it may also be seized. Good luck with it

Make sure your alternator and power steering pumps are turning freely. I personally have never seen a power steering pump lock up, but it could. I have, on the other hand seen numerous alternators freeze up because of bad bearings. Either one would cause a "squalling" sound as the engine runs and tries to rotate the belt over a pulley that isn't turning.

Maybe your power steering pump went. if the belt is not wet, but still tries to slip on the power steering pump pulley, the pump is probably starting to seize up. Did you check your power steering fluid? Try to remove the belt from the power steering pump pulley, then turn the pulley by hand to see if the pump is seized

There are 2 things that cause power steering to go stiff. The power steering pump itself either from failure or "lack of fluid" and the rack and pinion assy under the car.
Most of the time the failure is the power steering pump itself. The teflon rollers fail inside the pump and it either stops providing an output pressure or it seizes up. You can loosen the power steering pump belt then try to rotate the pump by hand. It should move by hand. If it feels like it is intermittently locking up as you rotate, it the teflon rollers have failed and the pump will need to be replaced.

Thanks for using FixYa.

Kelly

SOUND LIKE POWER STEERING PUMP GOING BAD.BLEED POWER STEERING PUMP MAKE SURE NO AIR IN THE SYSTEM BEFORE BUYING ANOTHER POWER STEERING PUMP.

very possible that the pump has failed (seized ) internally so get it checked out at an accredited power steering specialist shop
if it does not produce pressure then the steering will lock or be extremely heavy to turn

check the oil and coolant levels. if coolant is low pull the sparkplugs and try to turn the engine over if still not turning free remove the serpentine belt and try again, if it turns over ok check the pullyes on the front of the motor to see if they all turn free by hand. a serpentine belt can prevent an engine from turning over if a tensioner, idler, water pump, alternator, or power steering pump is siezed up or starting to seize. being your battery is bad I'm thinking probably the alternator is seized. hope this helps mike.