[IROCZman15]

ugh, I think I might have hurt the power steering pump during autocross. This power steering pump I installed back in mid April and it has only about 800 miles on it. My run group in autocross got all 7 runs done within an hour. I knew the pump would get hot, but with all the other autocross Ive done, my old oem pump got hot too but never failed or quit on me. During run 4 or 5 I remember feeling power steering disappear as I went to make a sharp right hand turn. power steering seemed to work while I was under throttle, but if I was off the throttle it was not there. this was the same the rest of the day. so that, plus the slight rain, made getting around the course quite a challenge. I thought maybe the belt got loose and i planned on fixing it after, but that is when it began pouring rain. I hoped that it would return to normal after the system cooled down.

So i checked it the next day and tightened the belt. still no power steering at low rpm. checked it again today, tried a new belt, no luck,. decided to scuff up the inside groove of the power steering pulley in case the belt was slipping inside the groove. no change. The general consensus from a few people is that it got too hot, and will never come back. I agree, but I am hoping it is not the case.

If I have to replace the pump, I don't want to go with a gen 2 pump. I don't like the look and underhood appearance is important to me. I know I need an in-line cooler. I am curious about what to do for a pump that keeps the look of the pump I have now. see photos a few pages back. That is the look I want. Would liek to remedy this soon, especially with the UMI autocross even coming up (which even though i am registered, I might have a conflict and have to bail out, which would suck)