Well, I got back this afternoon from ten days in Chicago. I got up there
Thursday night the 21st and immediately got stuck in a snowy parking spot.
After working for a half an hour I got out, but on the way home from an
event that evening (when the temp was 9 below zero) my power steering
started making a whiny noise.
I checked it the next morning and the inside of my engine compartment was
covered in power steering fluid, the pulley was wobbling and the pump was
dry. Whee! As the weather was so dreadful and it was a holiday weekend, I
couldn't get the truck towed to a dealership until Tuesday after Christmas!
Absolutely no tow companies were even accepting calls. My truck ended up
being stranded for five days! I'm sure my revving the engine high while
fighting the ice and spinning my wheels prompted the pump failure, but it
must have been faulty in the first place, right?
Anyway, the pump was replaced under warranty by a creepy Dodge dealership
(creepy meaning the shop was a big old dirty barn with mechanics banging on
engines with hammers). Everything seems to be working normally now, but the
pulley has just a bit of wobble to it and it sounds a little more rattly
than I remember (possibly just worry-enhanced hearing, though). I've never
really looked before, but is some amount of pulley play normal? Or should a
pulley be rock steady and straight?
What a great couple of weeks... I sure am glad to be home, and I missed the
DML!
- Alex
'00 RC SLT V6 5-Speed
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