Chrysler Repair: PT Cruiser whining noise, chrysler dealer, hi doug

Question
I have a 2001 PT Cruiser with 50,000 miles that developed a “whining” noise coming from the power steering unit (it appears).  It is only there when the weather starts to get cold and is more pronounced as the outside temperature drops.  In the summer you hear it very, very little or not at all.  There are no other noises or problems with the steering.  I finally decided to take it into our local Chrysler dealer to have them look at it as it really annoys my wife in the winter.  I researched the internet just for grins and got answers from everything from air in the system to fluid is low to a bad pump to flush the system and install the latest fluid recommended by Chrysler.  They troubleshot it and called me to tell me that the rack & pinion is bad and needs to be replaced to the tune of $800.00.  They said it is leaking, thus dropping the fluid down causing the whining.  This just doesn’t seem right to me.  I told them not to fix at this time and to just top of the fluid which they said they did (I have not checked the level yet since I picked it up).  The funny part is when I picked up the car it is still “whining” so that tells me the low fluid assumption is not correct and I thought when you had a defective rack and pinion you would feel something in the steering.  Also, I never see any fluid on the garage floor under the engine.  Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.

Answer
Hi Doug,
There can be an internal fluid leak in the steering gear without there being an external loss of fluid. There is a way of measuring for that which the dealer could do or maybe didn't do to verify that possibility. It would not necessarily be noticable in the functioning of the steering.
However it is normal for the whining level to be worse when the ambient temp is cold. About the only thing to check now would be the positioning of the hoses between the pump and the steering gear which may be unnecessarily touching the chassis which also increases the noise level, and you will be keeping an eye on the fluid level. In any case, the system is fail/safe as far as steering control is concerned so there is no high urgency to replace the rack and pinion gear at this time.
Roland