Hi all, this is my first post on Mercedesforums, so I apologize if I don't follow etiquette completely.

I've been having some issues with the power steering system on my CLK 350. I was screwing around doing donuts when it went out the first time. Obviously, it was my own mistake. I replaced it and had about another week before it went again while exiting a gas station on the highway. Thankfully, I bought warranty on the part, and it was replaced for free, and deemed faulty. This time around, I decided to do a full system flush when replacing it, and bled the system as best as I could. All was well until I did a small pull today. After 5500RPM on a completely straight road, I felt it tighten up on me, and I once again lost power steering.

I can't wrap my head around why this is the case. Seems to be that the common trend is that high RPM absolutely destroys my pumps. Could I have damaged the rack, causing the pumps to keep dying? I'm sort of turned off from the idea of the CLK at this point, and losing motivation to keep fixing it. I love driving it, but I'm not sure if it's completely for me, as I do tend to thrash my cars around a bit. One acceleration almost to redline should not be shredding a brand new power steering pump. Also just to include more info, I have 80,000 miles on it.

If anyone has any suggestions or experience with this situation, I would owe you big time for any advice!

Thank you all in advance for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day!
Brodsky