Power steering pump leaking; re-seal or replace?

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2000 Durango. PS pump is leaking quite a bit. Pinpointed it with UV dye and a black light. Tried Lucas stuff a few months ago and it's not working.

So, it looks like the seal kit for the pump is about $12 at Napa. Pump will be around $100.

Assuming the pump is original, it's 17 years old and has been in operation for 133,000 miles. Should I buy the seal kit or just put in a new (reman.) pump? I'm not too concerned about the money part of it, and I don't have a lot of extra time. Thanks.

Edit: Also, if I go with a full pump change, any recommended brands/stores?
 
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Since your time is limited, a new unit might be the best choice....but replacing one seal vs the mess of 2 hydraulic fittings, unhooking the steering wheel and moving stuff out of the way to get to the mounting bolts could take longer.

My brother just replaced the seal on his 06 Dodge, he said it was a bit of a bear but it's working fine with no leaks. Power steering pumps rarely go bad; so If your pump is working well then the seal might be the way to go.
 
Rebuilds can be real iffy, yours has 133K on it how much does the rebuild have? They only swap seals and any defective parts.
Put a seal kit in the old one if its working well other than the leak or put a new one in.
 
I once bought a MOPAR reman pump for mom's 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee and it was the best reman pump ever. It was $180. I replaced it in 2009 and it still worked well when the car was sold in 2014.

The other thing that was great was that there was already a pulley and reservoir already attached, on many rebuilds you have to transfer those items to the rebuilt pump.
 
If the pump works fine aside from the leak, and resealing isn't significantly harder/aggravating than just throwing a new pump on, I would try to reseal.

My 2002 Ranger started leaking from the pressure line fitting on the reservoir. I bought a $7 seal kit from Napa and picked out the o-ring I needed. Matching up a single o-ring would have been even cheaper, but the whole seal kit was cheap enough.

Reman and new aftermarket pumps have hit or miss quality, so I'd only go for those if it would save me from a lot of tedious labor.
 
Thanks, everybody. I appreciate the responses. Silly me, I'd assumed reman. meant reliable. But if mine is as good as the one I'm putting on - and maybe better - I'm inclined to find the leaky seal, hone in on it and move on for $12. I'll drop some more Lucas in afterwards in hopes of preserving the other seals.
 
As someone pointed out OE remans are usually okay. I know Honda only uses the old housing, everything else is new. That being said there is no guarantee the dealer is carrying OE, one GM dealer got pinched for using Delco pro stuff instead of OE reman racks.
There is almost a $300 price and quality difference, course they charged the customer for OE.

Anything with Cardone, Atsco, house brand names and new Chicom stuff from ebay is generally garbage.
 
Originally Posted By: Trav
Anything with Cardone, Atsco, house brand names and new Chicom stuff from ebay is generally garbage.

So true.

I can usually identify those pumps because someone carelessly sprays them with cheap black paint and some of the paint is already falling off.
 
I definitely would not buy a Cardone remanufactured pump because I have been burned too many times with those pumps. But on the other hand the Cardone Select are new pumps, and are available for your ride. Also, DNJ Engine Components makes a new one too.

My pump is leaking now on my Oldsmobile, and I still have not decided to rebuild it, or just buy an ACDelco reman. I can get a new DNJ for $100 without reservoir, but don't know about the quality.
 
I had a 2000 Durango with the 5.2L. At about 250K I had a leaking power steering pump. I got a reman unit w/resevoir from Advance Auto. I think it was $50 or so with coupon codes. I sold the vehicle about 22K miles later but I had no problem with the reman pump from Advance. I had to use the loan a tool for pulling the pulley off the old pump and putting it on the new pump. Took me about 1.5 hours to change the pump and most of that was fooling with getting the pulley swapped.
 
I'd go ahead and get a new pump, if the pump fails after the new seals your going to have to do all that work again anyhow
 
Originally Posted By: HawkeyeScott
2000 Durango. PS pump is leaking quite a bit. Pinpointed it with UV dye and a black light. Tried Lucas stuff a few months ago and it's not working..... I don't have a lot of extra time.


I had a leaking PS rack, having to top up at least once a week or so. It runs on either PS "fluid" or ATF. Read some very good reports using ATP AT-205 reseal. Found it locally for $10/bottle. Flushed & filled with Valvoline MaxLife 100% syn. ATF and added 2-1/2 oz of 205 about a week ago. Haven't needed to add any fluid since.

Time will tell but if it stops my leaking rack, I'll be amazed. I was looking at an expensive replacement.

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You're better off rebuilding the pump you have or buying a brand new complete pump. The usual leak points on a pump (assuming it's a Saginaw pump) are the pump to reservoir oring, shaft seal, pressure fitting and mounting bolts. You don't have to completely tear apart the pump to fix the leak since a lot of the reseal kits come with all the seals if you plan to rebuild the whole pump but you'll need 5 orings at the most.

Also consider resleeving the pump shaft. I've replaced the seal itself only to come back after a couple years. The shaft seal wears a groove into the shaft making it prone to leaks.
 
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