Thought I ought to follow up on the results of all the research.
I ended up stopping by the dealer to see if they knew about the PUMA note. They were very helpful even though they knew I wouldn't be having the pump replaced there. They verified it was the pump (kinda obvious given the amount of noise it was making) and mentioned I would need to to replace the banjo bolt at the same time. They hadn't heard of any serious issues, but replacing the pumps wasn't unheard of either.
Well, I took it to my guy to do the actual work. I just don't have the time anymore for a job this big, and as an aircraft mechanic he is super meticulous. Well, he found that most of the lines were in pretty bad shape. The pressure hose (32416774215) cost $270! I noticed that realoem lists the same PUMA note for it. I have a feeling that note is to make sure the service tech checks all the parts (lines, pump, check valves, and rack) at once.
My mechanics thought on it is the leaking lines actually suck in air, which causes excessive wear on the pump leading to eventual failure. So, just a word to everyone here. Get any power steering issues taken care of right away while they are still maintenance issues.
Oh, and on a side note... It looks like the power steering pump models are:
pre 09/01 - LUK LF 20 - 32416760036
09/01 to 09/02 (?) - LUK LF 30
post 09/02 - LUK LF 20 - 32416760034 <- yeah, that's right a different part number for the same model pump.
There was a thread over on
E46fanatics about it.