Greetings, we just experienced our second power steering pump failure on our Pilot. We have approximately 5,000 total miles on the vehicle which we special ordered and received in January 2003 (today is November 14, 2003). We do not drive it much except for family trips. I have a potential theory to bounce off you good folks... being an engineer, I was a bit concerned about the power steering pump not being flooded by the fluid reservoir. I was even more concerned that the reservoir was below the pump. I was assured by the salesman that there were no issues with the arrangement. I later learned about the reported pulley failures. Again I was assured that was fixed by a new design. Well, now we have two pump failures with only 5000 miles on the vehicle. By failure I mean that the pump started making excessively loud whining noises consistent with dry gear mesh noise. We brought it into the dealer prior to driving to the point of actual failure. Here is the theory... I suspect that the power steering pump cannot hold enough vacuum in the fluid supply line to maintain lubrication of the pump. Once the engine has set for a longer period of time, the pump could lose it's prime and begin to run dry on the next usage of the vehicle. If not running completely dry, maybe there is enough loss of prime to cause cavitation in the pump. Could it be that if this is not caught soon enough that the heat generated causes thermal expansion of the gear sets resulting in the pump seizing up" if the pump seizes up, would it then be possible to present enough force by the serpentine belt to create enough torque to sheer off the pulley" let me know what you think. I am certainly going to have a discussion with my dealership on this (again).

- Greenville, WI, USA