Pontiac Repair: 2000 Sunfire GT Power steering trouble, power steering trouble, gm cars

Question
Recently, the power steering has stopped working, although after the car warms up a bit there seems to be some response, but still very difficult and somewhat jerky. The fluid is fine, but we haven't checked any further  yet.

Answer
Hey Chris:

Sounds like the sterring gear had morning sickenss. At one time it was a pretty common issue with GM cars. Not so much anymore. If this car has a lot of miles on it I would suspect that the steering rack is bad the seals are leaking inside the rack thus the loss of assist. The fact that it comes back some as it warms up make me belive it's the rack and as it warms up the seals swell up some and that's why it has some assist then. If it were the pump the assist wouldn't come back. I would want to do a pressure test on the pump before I condem the rack though. If you look at the fluid and it appears to have a metalic tint to it then there is metal in the fluid and I would replace the pump as well and flush out the lines. Good luck :}