Hey look, I'm having yet another problem with my car!

*sigh*

So, everytime I start the car up after not driving it for a while, the steering wheel feels a little weird. Basically, after I start up the car, I put the car in gear to drive off (dur). Now, as I'm getting out of my driveway, I notice that when I turn the steering wheel, during the first 45-degrees of motion, the steering wheel feels stiff for just a split second. It's like there is something on the ground that's preventing my wheels from turning smoothly when I rotate the wheel. It'll happen only once or twice and go away once the car is warm.

Why is this happening? Is there something I should look at in regards to the power steering? Is it the pump? Or maybe the belt? I have one belt that slips on rare occasions (and sometimes it'll do it at startup and veeerry loudly), is it time to change that belt already?

 

Generally when that's happened on other cars I've owned it was usually because the pump was low on fluid. That either happened because of a bad seal (There's a PS fluid that helps seal gasket leaks, but I can't remember what the name is) or the pump was getting ready to go bad.

 

On my old car i had those symptoms and my rack and pinion was leaking steering fluid.

 

try replacing the fluid with Mobil1 ATF...its real easy but kind of messy....just put a pan under the car to catch all the fluid that comes out...i just did it on my 2k2 and the difference is noticeable...my fluid was stock and 44k miles old....