A friend has a Ford Ka she uses very infrequently.
She has the following symptoms from her power steering. [1]
a) Loses a bit of fluid. b) Makes a whineing noise when working - (whineing noise like you get when you reverse). c) Appears now to not be working 'cos steering is heavier than usual.
Could this be a leaky pipe letting all the fluid drain and the whineing noise is a pump working with no load?
How should I go about diagnosing this?
[1] I'm not going out to look until the rain stops so we'll take her word for these things.