OK. This may be hard to believe, but it's true.
Several months ago the stock power steering pump on my 96 Sable starting whining a little bit. I was out of town and I didn't want to break down so I stopped at a gas station garage in NJ and told the mechanic about the problem. He listened to the motor and said "Yeah it's your pump starting to go bad." So I had him replace it.
Guess what? The replacement pump whined LOUDER than the stock one. Well, I told him that was unacceptable and he said that the replacement one may have been bad so he ordered another one from his supplier and put it on. Well, that one whined too, not as loud as pump #2 but still louder than the stock one. I was in a hurry so I paid him and left.
Got home and the whining sound was really annoying - you could hear me coming down the street, so I took it to a Ford dealership. Well, first they said the car needed a complete front suspension rebuild and 4 wheel brake job plus new engine mounts. They said they'd do the pump too. The whole thing came out to $2400.
I went to pick the car up and guess what? The damn pump was still whining. I thought they'd forgotten about it. The manager said that it WAS a new pump they put in. When I complained about the noise, he said and I quote "The whining sound is normal for these pumps."
I could never sell the damn car. No one would buy it with the whining sound.
Was I given a line? How could 3 replacement pumps all whine?