More A/C ?s and PS pump info

[Craig Angus]

List,

Got my car back from having its 3rd PS pump in 35k installed (Warranty? Hah!).
This is the third pump installed by this tech in the past month on 200s
from 3 different vendors--all of which failed in less than 30k!  Only one
vendor backed up the pump.  ZF apparently will NEVER send you a warranty
replacement rack or pump unless you're a member of their immediate family.
Quite frustrating as mine only had 8k miles in less than 8 months.  Anyway,
I noticed a "click" when initially pressing the brake pedal which makes me
nervous that the bomb and/or brake servo are bad or going too--perhaps a
contributor to the premature failure(s)??

The other nagging problem is--ever since I had the recirculating flap
spring and holding clip replaced--the A/C doesn't blow cold air out of the
vents for
varying periods of time and seems to prefer low throttle (high vacuum?)
conditions.  Air is cold and seems to work fine otherwise. The heater works
fine too and sometimes it improves functioning to "toggle" between the heat
and A/C via the temp control.  Any ideas or BTDTs on these two conditions?
Any help most appreciated,
as usual...

Craig in CO