I was experiencing a high pitched whine/whistle coming from under the hood. Dealer said it was the "power steering control".

I think I heard that the 2004.5 models had an electric power steering motor.

Dealer is quoting $1200 to replace the unit.

I'm considering taking it to my local car repair shop as I suspect there's nothing too Volvo'ish that would stump a general mechanic.

Anybody have to do the same repair? Does $1200 seem like a reasonable price or am I better off taking it to local shop?

Thx,
Rainor

PS As an aside this S40 with about 60k miles that I've owned for less than a year is nickel and diming me to death!! I've spent over $2k on things I wouldn't have expected to need replacing with this low miles, eg front struts, ebrake cables, something with the AWD. My daughter drives our old 850 that currently has over 200k miles and she (I) spends next to nothing on annual repairs.