[Saliv8]

I lost the power steering while driving down the road last Monday. When I opened the hood I discovered the power steering pump pulley had SHEARED off! It has been at the dealer for a week now and they don't know when to expect the part. So for the time being I am stuck with a crappy rental from the dealership. Am I the first one this has happened to? I thought maybe they warped the pulley by putting pressure on it during the water pump recall fix. This is now the 3rd time this car has been in the shop in 4500 miles. I grow more nervous daily that I made a bad choice.

 

[macbethderham]

http://www.honda-pilot.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1241&highlight=power+steering

Sounds like the same issue...

 

[Saliv8]

Yep - exactly the same breakage. Hmm... it will be interesting to see if there are more.

 

[jpickering]

I just got my car pilot back after two weeks for an engine issue. The cam siezed and they had to replace the head, timing belt and other engine parts. As compensation Honda offered me a 7 year/100,000 mile extended warrenty. You may want to try for the same.

JPickering

 

[Saliv8]

Thanks for the tip, but I negotiated that into the purchase price when I bought the vehicle. At least they will be fixing it for a while...

 

[TheWorm]

Saliv8,

The other broken (sheared) P/S pulleys occured after the waterpump recall fix. Outta curiosity, did you have the waterpump recall performed?

 

[Saliv8]

As mentioned above, yes. About 1,000 miles ago.

 

[jpickering]

They offered me the warrenty or some type of accessory. I took the warrenty based on what happened to the car.

 

[TheWorm]

As mentioned above, yes. About 1,000 miles ago.

Whoops...missed that one...You're either the 3rd or 4th Pilot/MDX owner w/a sheared P/S pulley, and every one of them occurred after the waterpump recall fix. I suppose either the bad waterpump/belt issue caused weakening of the pulley beforehand (in which case Honda needs to replace the pulley as a preventative measure), or the techs aren't torquing properly after replacing the waterpump, belts, etc. (in which case...)...

Sorry to hear about your continued problems, of course...

 

[Saliv8]

Wouldn't it be the tension on the belt and not the torque on the nut holding the pulley on? Seems to me if the belt was too tight it would cause extra strain on the pulley, virbrating it to the point of breakage - much the same as bending a piece of metal back and forth until it snaps.

 

[TheWorm]

Wouldn't it be the tension on the belt and not the torque on the nut holding the pulley on? Seems to me if the belt was too tight it would cause extra strain on the pulley, virbrating it to the point of breakage - much the same as bending a piece of metal back and forth until it snaps.

Beats me...I'm far from an expert on such things. Just making the now-obvious observation about the shearing and correlation to H2O pump recall work. I would think that a variety of things could cause the shearing -- certainly, as you mention, excessive belt tension being one of them. But if the pulley itself is overtorqued, there could be stress damage to the hub area. Similarly, if it's undertorqued, there could be some "wobble" that would cause weakening -- kind of like repeatedly bending a paperclip til it breaks.

Like I said, I'm just guessing all the possibilities...and HOPING that it's resulting from the waterpump/belt replacement rather than an inherent defect in that pulley (or design/routing of the belts), which would really suck!

Maybe one of our resident metallurgists will check in...