I've recently been blessed with a job that affords me the ability to have enough extra cash to get the numerous issues with my car fixed, and this particular one is of high annoyance:
In April of '04, I had my brakes done at a Midas shop. They checked all my fluids for me as well, but forgot to place the PS cap on. Six months later, I realize that I'm driving without a cap and that the fluid's a nasty looking orange color. I do nothing about it. A few months later, my steering starts to get...resistant. On cold mornings, my car develops a very loud rattling noise. My steering performance at a dead stop continues to worsen throughout that winter coming into '05. The rattling also gets more prevalent, occuring on both warm and cold mornings before the car itself warms up.
I bought a power steering cap this past spring (finally), so I no longer leak fluid everywhere when I hit a bump, but my steering's just as bad as ever. The fluid levels are fine, however it's still a dirty orange color. The rattling and poor steering are definitely on my nerves.
My car's steering works fine if I'm pressing the gas, but at a dead stop or when I'm slowing down the performance goes right down the toilet.
A friend of mine had mentioned that the pump would probably need to be replaced, but I thought I'd post here to see what might also be causing the problem, if anything.
1998 Saturn SL2 170k miles.Thanks in advance!