Please help diagnose steering problem- rack or pump

[clydesdale]

I put a new rack in 2 years ago and it has been great.
I had the car off the road for 5 weeks for various issues. When I drove it again the steering seemed stiff. INTERMITTENTLY, the car does not re-center easily from a turn. Other times it is perfect. I opened the PS reservoir and noticed that the fluid is VERY dark. It looked like dirty royal purple instead of bright red. The pump is making no noise and at a stand still the car seems to have fine power steering assist. Any ideas or things you want me to look for?

[davem]

Jack up the front and try turning the wheel with the engine off, try to feel for evidence that the strut bearings are toast.

Draining the p/s system is easy so do that too, and maybe even replace the p/s fluid reservoir, it has a filter in it.

[clydesdale]

Hmmmm, I will do that. How bad are those to replace? Do I need to compress the springs and all that again? I did struts about 4 years and 40k miles ago. Thanks. BTW, what will I be looking for with the car jacked up? Grinding?

[davem]

Hmmmm, I will do that. How bad are those to replace? Do I need to compress the springs and all that again? I did struts about 4 years and 40k miles ago. Thanks. BTW, what will I be looking for with the car jacked up? Grinding?

Hmmm... strut bearing should last more than four years - unless they weren't replaced when you did the struts. Not easy to replace since you need to pull the strut and take it apart, but not THAT difficult. Ya you should try to feel for sticky spots... the steering wheel not re-centering symptoms are bad strut bearings I believe.

[clydesdale]

I did not replace the bearings when I did the struts. How do they usually behave as they are quitting? Do they ultimately fail catastrophically?

[clydesdale]

The steering problem is becoming more consistent. I flushed it and when the fluid was out of the rack the steering was less stiff. With the car jacked up and turning the steering by pushing on a tire, there are consistent "catches" or periods of resistance. These seem to be predictable, almost like a flat spot in a tire. So, I started thinking it was the u-joint, but that does not add up with the other symptoms of it being intermittent at first. Plus, the u-joint was bought new, only about 3 years ago.
Do you know if it is possible to remove the joint without removing the rack?
How would you go about diagnosing this from here?
The strut bearing were not making any noise.
What in the rack would give the same resistance at predictable degrees of steering?
Any thoughts on how to dial this in? Thanks.

[jlevie]

Put the front of the car up in the air and cycle the steering from lock to lock (with the engine off). If you feel binding then the problem isn't the power steering system and the cause will be bad tie rods, bad control arms, bad strut bearings, a bad steering coupler, or a bad rack.