How hard is the PS pump to replace? It seems rather wedged up in there (V6 3.9). Mines howling and slowly losing fluid, but it's not leaking anywhere obvious. Going through the parking lot last thursday (one of the diagonal snake styles, you enter one side and snake to the other) it started locking up and i smelled burning trans fluid, got home, saw it was low (bottom of dipstick). Added some ATF to the cold mark. Today coming home from work, when I turned a quick left then right to back into the driveway, i could smell burning again (but it didn't lock up). Opened the cap right after i shut it off, and fluid was about halfway up the dipstick, between cold and hot.

Sounds like a pump failure to me? Like siggy says, i'm at 123K miles.

 

have you checked all of the obvious first, like maybe a cracked or loose hose, maybe a crack in the resivor? Check those, and see if maybe it just isnt something simple. They aren't hard to replace, but you will have to pull your pulley, and put it on the new one.

 

driveway is dry, i can't see any big stains on any chassis/engine components. When our dually popped a hydraulic line, it made a mess. Nothing like that here.

 

Then it sounds like the pump itself is going out, time for a replacement!

 

MAKE SURE YOU KEEP THE RESERVOIR, when you buy a new pump it doesnt come with one and you can only get a new one from the dealer and its like 300 bucks. My reservoir was craped up and luckily i found one at a wrecking yard lol

Be sure to check the mesh inside your reservoir as well, if it has a rip in it you will need a new one.