PAS Pump Advice please

[als2]

Hi guys, firstly, heres the rant i went on with my dodgy pump......

http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44570

The up shot is, i need a PAS pump for my ABY. My options are

1. get another pump from ECP (it is coated in red fluid) and flush it with green.
2. hand the faulty ECP pump back and walk away
3. get a good secondhand one? (anyone got one??)
4. where can you source a recon one??

any thoughts or advice greatly apreciated

AL

[als2]

Well this isnt looking promising...........

[Audi Parts Guru]

Might be worth you giving these guys a call to get a price for reconditioning a ZF PAS pump. I've never used them personally but they do offer a service whereby they rebuild your own unit

http://www.westernpowersteering.co.uk/index.html

Let us know how you get on

[Key Walshe]

Quattro Corner do them for £200 (or thereabouts) in exchange for yours.

[HPmuirt]

I didn't spot your other thread but I have just been through the same problem.

My mechanic used FOUR different supposedly recon'd OEM pumps (I think 2 from GSF and 2 from ECP) - 2 leaked, one rattled as much as my old one and one leaked AND rattled FFS!

And when I say leaked, I mean sprayed fluid out faster than you could pour it in. The mess over my friends garage floor needs to be seen to be believed.

The other thing that was truely amazing was that when we ran the one that only rattled but didn't leak, we went for a test drive and found that we had no brakes! The pump only had enough power for the steering but the brakes were completely unassisted. We immediately swaped my original unit back in and hey presto - Monobloc brakes working again

I am therefore running my original unit and still looking for a decent PAS reconditioner, so if anyone has any positive experiences, please post them as this is something a lot of us will need to know as our cars age.

Cheers n

Si

[als2]

Unbelievable Si, yeah i believ the pissing out of it scenario. mines was spraying outa the bottom with such force that it was spraying up about 2 feet and all over my engine bay, garage and bodywork! nice.
Doesnt sound great does it??? So i supose your experience leans towasrd givin the ECP one a miss????
£200 seem steep but i guess if its one u can trust............

[s2driveruk]

bloody awful experiences so far, didnt Rob also have problems on his ski trip in france a while back with a duff pump.

I'm trying to ignore the fact mine is making a racket at the moment because of what i have read, almost better the devil you know.

Surely someone out there can do a better job....be interesting to know if ECP and GSF get them remanufactured at the same place, sounds like there is a batch issue or something. I think a pretty stern (legal?) letter to these places might be a good idea and get them to foot the bill for a known good quality replacement (Maybe even OEM) on the basis that you have no confidence in anything else they provide you.

keep us posted

David

[Error404]

Ive got Robs old pump, stripped it down but not hand time for any real inspection, the only thing i noticed was the main shaft has a lot of end float. Need to have more of a look at it..... I assume there is no seal kit available from the stealer?

[mcandmar]

I was looking into a rebuild too, question is where to buy a seal kit?

Lots of good info here... http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8634

[als2]

Well im in friendly stealers tmrw so ill ask his thoughts. Prob with running one that rattling its t*ts off is that its obviously effecting the bomb as far as pressure is concerned. And thats i dont want!
Think i might drop into ECP tmrw as well for a face to face, but judging by their reponse so far (polite as it was) they dont really know what im on about.

Oh.............but according the parts guri they have (took 60min for this answer) its probaly because of the suspension regulator valve! thatl be it then!!!!!

[Key Walshe]

To add to my earlier post (needed to check my papers) I bought a PAS pump from ECP over 2yrs ago after the seal went under the top + screw. It went on the motorway less than half a mile from my destination so I carried on, by the time I arrived (within minutes) it had burnt out the motor as the fluid was almost gone (it squirts out like a severed artery don't it?). Flatbed home and fit a replacement from ECP, I paid £193 all in (product # 619440261). This was listed as "brand new" so presumably not an OEM piece. It was painted all over with what looked like Araldite, very nasty looking...

Safe to say this broke within about 8 weeks, a couple of seals failed in it, including the same large + one as the original broken one! This was swapped for an OE recon item (# 619440260), plus an extra £90 or so, and this one worked fine for 2yrs. However I've managed to almost break this one when playing in the snow doing donuts, too exhuberant showing off to my little lad! Though its not leaked so its staying on for now as it still works fine above 1600rpm. But I'll be replacing it next month and I'll be trying the quattro corner item as its near £100 cheaper than the one that worked from ECP - I wouldn't even trust their cheaper one as an air pump in my fish tank, it was crap!

[Phil Payne]

any thoughts or advice greatly apreciated

Rebuild it.

http://www.isham-research.co.uk/quattro/hydraulic_pump.html

[als2]

Cheers phil, nice article that.

My thoughts are to rebuild it myself at mo. If the pump is rattling and sounds like a bag of nails will seals alone cure this? or are we talking shaft wear? (ouch!)

Al

[madpugger]

Ive got Robs old pump, stripped it down but not hand time for any real inspection, the only thing i noticed was the main shaft has a lot of end float. Need to have more of a look at it..... I assume there is no seal kit available from the stealer?

Actually, there is, I was told by them NO, NO WAY, looked in the album myself, gave them the part no. and oh, yesh, we have it on the shelf!

I think i posted the part number before...



Al, there was one for sale in the forum a while back which i was gonna get the pulley off, but not heard back yet...

[Phil Payne]

My thoughts are to rebuild it myself at mo. If the pump is rattling and sounds like a bag of nails will seals alone cure this? or are we talking shaft wear?

The shaft is very tightly shimmed for end float at the factory - there shouldn't be any detectable axial play at all. I think the phosphor bronze sleeve does the same for radial play. The whole thing is pretty tight.

I've probably done about eight. Mostly it's because of a previous failed rebuild and leaking caps - some have been because of the shaft seal. I've never done one for a rattle. You might get lucky if it turns out that one of the pistons in the front section has hung up.

The seal kit is readily available from Audi - but there's also a new ZF parts operation in the UK and if you get the ZF part number off the pump that may be quicker and cheaper - ZF have a good reputation for customer care.