I had tightness in the steering, turned out it was my steering column / u joint was seized.

Replaced that, then the PS pump died.

Replaced the PS pump, then the steering rack leaked.

Replaced the steering rack and everything was OK for about 1 month, now the pump is really noisy again

Silly cars.

 

That's some trick we have!...
Presto! Something else to do!!

 

I just finished replacing my lower steering column. This was after replacing the pump (I went with new), cooling fan and adding the cooling duct kit. Original pump was intermittent, original fan was very noisy.

I suspect the lower steering column problem is more common than what we've seen on the forum. One axis on my lower joint was completely seized. I can get it to move now that it's out of the car, but only with a _lot_ of force.

It's not much fun to replace the lower steering column. The TIS fails to mention that the upper part of the column will happily slide toward the steering wheel if you put much force on it (like when trying to fit the lower steering column onto it); I found out the hard way.

Obviously the pump issue accelerates failure of the lower joint since you wind up using more force on it to move the rack. To be brutally honest, it's a crap part; the lower joint is not well-made. I guess I'd call this a warning to those who decide to delay replacing the pump and drive without power assist for a while. It's likely you're going to cause your lower steering column's lower joint to seize sooner. Mine had some rust on it, but not a lot. The seizure does not appear to be corrosion-induced. I've considered putting a boot on it anyway, but I don't see a good way to seal the bottom of a boot since the joint is so close to the rack. I believe it seized from plain old wear, accelerated by my pump going intermittent and me hence muscling the wheel for several weeks of daily commuting while I waited for pump, fan and duct kit parts to arrive.