I have a weird issue. Power steering does not work until the engine RPM is at about 1000. Anything below that makes the steering wheel progressively hard to turn as RPM gets lower. At idle (around 500 RPM) the steering wheel cannot be turned at all. All of this happens while the car is stationary (obviously it's easy to turn the wheel once the car is moving).

Is my power steering pump dying/dead or is power steering fluid level too low? I looked inside the reservoir and it's about 50% full. I also don't have any lights or error messages on the display.

 

Put some fluid in and see what happens.?? 50% sounds like half empty.

 

Unless someone knows the exact level the fluid should be at, I am not going to experiment with it. There are no markings on the reservoir itself and the manual contains zero info about it. The dealership is picking up the car on Monday....let them deal with it.

 

That's what I'd do.

 

So.......
Any news on this issue ??

 

There is something wrong with the pump (one of the seals is bad or something). They are replacing it and replacement has to be shipped from the UK (weird, I guess they do not fail that often).

 

OK , that's weird. If you get any more info on the failure once its been fixed please let us know

 

Here is exactly what the dealership service department wrote:

CLIENT STATES STEERING FEELS HEAVY AND POWER STEERING SYSTEM IS MAKING NOISE . INSPECT AND REPORT

PUMP LEAKING
48999999 1.0 CHECK FOER LEAKS AND CLEAN UP AREA
48999914 2.4
01210000 .5
4899 I 0050
I CHECKED THE POWER STEERING SYSTEM FOR LEAKS I FOUND THE
POWER STEERING PUMP LEAKING MINERAL OIL BY ITS FRONT SEAL CC
I REPLACED THE POWER STEERING PUMP ,I BLED THE POWER STEE
RING SYSTEM AND ROADTEST THE CAR .. THE POWER STEERING SYSTEM
IS NO LEAKING AND IT IS NOT MAKING NOISE.