I drove my 2005 Acura MDX to ski at Timberline, Mt Hood, Oregon one day in May. The elevation at the parking lot was 6000 feet. It was sunny but windy and cold. The daytime high temperature was 32F but the windchill could be a few degrees lower. After a day of happy skiing and when I tried to leave in the afternoon, I turned the ignition and the car didn’t start, no noise as if nothing happened. My first thought was something drained my battery dead. When the initial panic settled down, I noticed my instrument panel was as bright as normal, turned on radio and it was as loud as it could be. The battery didn’t appear to be weak at all. But the starter just couldn’t turn. I got out and opened the hood to inspect. I don’t remember I touched anything other than a visual inspection that didn’t reveal anything unusual. I got back inside and decided to try one more time and the car miraculously started! What could be the problem and how do I go about diagnosing it? Weather has turned warm and the problem only happened that one time.

After the car started I heard a whining or crying noise from the power steering pump. I recalled the same noise had always happened whenever the temperature was below freezing. The noise would go away after the engine warmed up in a few minutes so I was never concerned enough to investigate its source until this day when the hood happened to be up and open. It was the power steering pump that made the whining noise when the temperature dropped low enough! I came up with a hypothesis: my car failed to start because the power steering pump was seized in a windy and cold environment, opening the hood helped to warm it up enough under the sun for it to operate again. But I just read the service manual that states “humming noise heard 2-3 minutes after starting the engine in cold weather is normal”. I don’t know what to think of it now.

Here're a few photos of my power steering pump. Obviously there’s some minor fluid leak. Should I replace the power steering pump or just the o-rings of the inlet and outlet hoses?