My dealer replaced my pump under warranty yesterday, and the noise is gone. They said that it was leaking and damaged internally. The service summary lists a remanufactured pump, which I might normally quibble about except that it was free, and the new ones seem to suck so maybe the remanufactured units will last longer. I hope this one makes it from 50,000 miles until well past 100,000!

 

Ok all, here how it went...
Got a call from BBA remanufacturing, Pump was unable to be rebuilt due to extream overheating (so I'm told) I recieved it back and was forced to get one from the dealer. (mini of the woodlands, thx David!) I recieved a rebuilt pump at a cost of $436 :( I was quoted a new redesigned pump for $670 if I wanted to go that route. Warranty was the same on the part either way so i figured why pay the extra amount. Did not have to replace the fan at $170 so I returned it unopened. (used a 7.2 volt rechargable battery and tester leads to see that the fan worked before i installed it) In all I guess It was worth checking out even know the mini was on jack stands for 3 weeks. Glad I had my 70 buick to drive in the meantime...
Install went fine and everything it back to normal. (for now) lol.....

 

Sorry to jump in, but I'm in a similar, but different situation. The PS on my '02 MCS began dropping out two weeks ago. It would come and go but finally died last week. After reading the on going thread, I dove in, pulled the pump, (got a face full of PS fluid) and sent it to the folks at BBA.
They called last week to tell me the pump was fine. DUH! So here's the question (s). Where do I go from here? I would guess I'm looking for connection issues? The undercarriage is clean, no worn or torn harness areas, and, as the problem would come and go, I assume that the fuse is not the problem. I have a Bentley manual on order, but till then, I'd grateful for any input.
Cheers
Dave C

 

Dave,
IMHO the pump is not fine. It is intermittent. The inputs to the pump are very simple: It receives power (The big connector) and a signal from the alternator that tells the pump to run. The other two connections in the small connector are ground and a diagnostic signal. It is possible that the signal from the alternator is intermittent but I doubt it. My pump was intermittent and installing a replacement cured the problem.
HTH,
Mike

 

"IMHO the pump is not fine. It is intermittent."


Thanks for the reply Mike.
It did occur to me that that was a possibility. In fact, the trip via UPS could have shaken things up enough to sort things out on a temporary basis. When it left here, it was dead in the water. I haven't a clue as to the internal design of these pumps. If the tech at BBA just hooked it up and ran it for a minute he may well have missed the problem. It might be worth a call back up there to confirm the evaluation.

Dave C