Bad news from the shop:

[kenratboy]

So my PS pump is done for, and he put it up on the rack to see if the hose was still OK.

Lift it up and we are both looking - and there is fluid leaking down the OTHER side from the pump.

Turns out not only does the pump need to be replaced (not sure on the hoses), but the RACK is shot (leaking in a few places).

Not going to be cheap...

Is this normal for a well-cared for Camry with 110k miles?

I don't mind spending the (vast sum) of money, but I am worried that this car is falling apart and more problems might spring up. The engine (V6) feels VERY good, and the transmission (manual) feels fine other than the syncros are showing some wear.

Any advice or thoughts?

I drive about 10,000 miles a year (or less, maybe closer to 7,500) and my desire is to have this car last me until I get my masters degree and get my first real job (about 4ish years) - in other words, I want this car to last another 4 years/40,000 miles at the minimum.

[pigpig]

my PS steering started get heavier since last year i got it serviced.
don't know what happened.
it suddenly lost power assistance one time for a few seconds.
i put in a little PS fluid last week, no improvement.
no visiable leaks as far as i can tell.
does this sound to your story too?
it's a 2000 camry LE 4 cyl, with 100K miles

[bigbird]

mine has been leaking for sevral thousand miles and no problems other then a needed refill ever so often. sounds a little premature for the PS but camrys are know for having problerms with everything long before what really counts, engine and trans.

[toyomoho]

Was the PS not working the reason you brought it to the shop? Is the pump bad, or just a hose? The rack can keep leaking for many miles/years and work just fine or blow a seal and start to seriously leak. If the PS does go out completely with loss of fluid, the car can still be driven normally.

Also do a TN history search on PS problems as this has come up a few times.

[Camryamnesty]

make sure your belt isnt slipping too...

[Luckynumber5]

The PS rack on my 92 needed to be replaced at around 149k, at about 110k it had started leaking. The shop I took it to thought it was both the pump and rack, turned out it was just the rack. Try some PS stop leak and just keep topping it off, it should slow down after a few weeks or so and may eventually stop. I had stop leak in mine for a while and everything works great including the cooling fan which is run by my PS system.

[gumbydammit]

A dose of the seal swell (aka stop leak) is a cheap band-aid for sure.
There is no way to tell if the rack will live for a week or ten more years.
(This is true about any vehicle on the road though...even the new ones.)

I would do the pump and try the seal. Monitor the rack and fluid level.

You can change the seals in those too...you don't need to replace the rack.
For a shop, it is not worth fixing them, they just swap-em.