I was backing out of my driveway the other day which has a little 'S' in it. I noticed as soon as I tried to turn that the steering wheel was extremely heavy. I could barely turn it at all. I turned off the car and restarted. The power steering was back on again for a few seconds but then went out again as I was straightening out the wheels. I put it into 1st and started to pull away and I heard a little squeal and after that the car has been working perfectly. Any ideas? I only gave the car about 2 seconds to warm up after starting it before I started to back up. Maybe the pump has to 'charge'??

 

Did you ever get this figured out - I have a similar issue with no power steering assist.

 

I just had my power steering pump and accumulator changed. My first indication was a small drip of fluid on garage floor. After pump was replaced pushing the clutch was very hard and got harder as RPM increased. Apparently since the pump had been going out, the accumulator had taken over the bulk of the work and failed with the new pump pressure restored. Car has 23,500 miles.