Hey Guys, new member and new Dakota owner here. I bought my '04 Dakota, 4.7L QC last Tuesday, has 95K on it. This is actually my first Dodge ever, been a Toyota truck owner for years, but I love the Dodge, makes the Toyota's feel like toys.

The power steering pump is really noisy, heavy whine. Works good, no binding or anything, as usual it's worse when cold, but it doesn't get much better when warmed up.

I've seen some things that say this is "normal" for Dakota's, but that makes no sense to me, how can it be normal to have a screaming p/s pump that sounds like crap?? Also seen some posts that say even when you replace them the new ones whine.

The whining of a p/s pump drives me insane!! I'd rather have any other noise than that one. Is there any particular reason these pumps tend to whine, is it always a sign that the pump has gone bad or is it a sign of something else going bad, like the rack or something?

I have no problem putting a pump in it, it's an easy and relatively cheap job, but just wanted to see if there is some reason these trucks are hard on p/s pumps that I could maybe rectify as to not have another pump go out?

Thanks for any help guys.