I think my power steering pump is dead -- help?
Earlier tonight, I was headed out when I noticed that there was a strange whirring/knocking sound coming from the engine that varied with engine speed, would occasionally go away, but would then come back. At first it sounded a bit like "marbles in a can," but my M50 doesn't have VANOS.
Anyway, on the way home I stopped at a gas station and took a look under their lights. I could make out the silhouette of some pulley that seemed to be wobbling a bit more than it should've. Then, after gassing up, I was less than a mile down the road when I heard/felt something give. The noise went away suddenly and I found myself without any steering assist. :o The rest of the car was running just fine.
I was only two miles from home, so I muscled my way to my parking spot. Before I got there, the battery light and the parking brake light lit up on my IP cluster and never turned off until I shut down the car. It's too dark outside for me to take a look at anything until the morning.
Has this happened to anyone? What should I expect to see in the morning? And is the only solution a new steering box? #@#$#!@#!...
And while I'm at it, is there any parts exchangeability between the non-VANOS M50 pump and one from, say, an E36?
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