Heading into work this morning on the Baltimore Beltway doing about 65 mph in my 2005 Dodge 2500 4X4 truck. (84K miles) Without any warning my steering wheel became next to impossible to turn and I had no brakes. Since it was really early and traffic was light, I was able to safely, with some close calls, get onto the shoulder and stop my truck. I tried looking down to see what was going on and saw what I pretty much knew was the culpret. My serpantine belt had broken or popped off and was wrapped up around some things in the engine bay. I turned on my flashers and all of my amber warning lights (snow plow truck) and proceeded at 5 mph on shoulder to next exit and into a parking lot of Advanced Auto. I am a firefighter and had another man waiting for me to get in so I knew I would have to wait to fix the problem. My fire engine came down to Advanced Auto and picked me up and I worked my day shift. When I got off and was dropped off at my truck, I proceeded to buy a new belt ($49.99) and went about my business of putting new belt on. It was then I found the entire pulley on the power steering pump had sheered off the pump. Had plenty of fluid, hadn't been making any moans or groans, etc. Little hard for me to do with few tools and limited mechanical knowledge. So truck was towed in to local dealer. I was under the impression that the pump is covered under cummins 100K mile warranty but it appears it isn't. Remanufactrued pumps with resevoir are less than $100. Can't imagine what dealer is going to charge. lol. My problem is, the pump failing at 84K miles is totally unacceptable. I have had 6 other diesel trucks and a few gassers and never had a pump do this. Does anyone know if others are experiencing this problem? What may have caused this? Suggestions on pushing it with the dealer to get tehm to give me a break or cover some of it? I have several other diesels with over 220K miles and not a single one has had a power steering pump go up.

Thanks, John

 

Man, I can't believe they changed from the gear driven setup when they went to CR trucks...............

FWIW I had the same thing happen with the wifes 98 Grand Cherokee.

I just put a replacement pulley on.

 

Belts break or come off all the time, that's why you check for wear or damage at every oil change at the least.

Good thing it's the law that a vehicle can still be steered after it loses it's power steering. It's not the law on slower moving pieces of equipment where loss of the power steering can result in no steering at all.

 

Bill, they are using PLASTIC pulleys on them, when the wifes GC went, it was right now, no warning.

I check it out religiously at least every oil change as well.

 

I lost my idler puller this summer. Took out everything when the belt went. Not to mention I had th 25ft deck over G/N on the back. Talk about almost having to use the Flintstones breaks

 

The scary thing is I could not turn my wheel more than 5 or 6 inches in either direction while moving at 65 mph. Brakes were almost non existant. In trying to get over, cut off many cars and a tractor trailer. This was more than just losing power steering and having only manual steering. I replace my serpentine belts religiously and keep the old belt for a backup in each truck. The whole pulley sheared off..the shaft from the pulley into the pump sheered off leaving the pulley with a short piece of the shaft. Dealer called today said power steering pump needs to be replaced at a cost of around $680. Seems excessive to since a remanufactured pump witrh resevoir is around $89 at Advanced Auto.

 

Ok, if it was the shaft that sheared, I would say it is a fluke, because I have very rarely ever heard of such a thing.

680 is high, but not out of line when you consider it is a dealership, they only will use OEM parts, and most are close to 100/hr on labor.