I got parked in tight by a little foriegn car in a parallel parking space and had to do a 30 point back and forth to get out of the spot. My power steering quit working, but later came back. No leakage anywhere.
Guess what, the exact same thing happend to me the next day (I hate working at condos) and this time the power steering went out and has not come back.

The fluid level in the reservoir was/is fine. I tried jacking up the front end this am and working the steering lock to lock incase there were air bubbles in it, but no luck. The steering gearbox is only about a year old or so and the pump is probably 3 years old. I am guessing that there is some blow out of a seal or a stuck valve or something in the pump or the gear box or the pump. I am guessing it is in the gearbox, as when I turned the wheels lock to lock, some fluid came out of the pump cap (it wasn't on tight).

Definitely getting a good arm work out at low speeds with no power steering....
Any easy tests or guesses on this one? thanks

 

not sure why it would quit working, a good right to left turn of the wheel at a stop can be good enough to fry the fluid. holding the wheel with pressure up against the steering stops is another bad idea. ive made it a habit of never turning the steering wheel of a vehicle unless its rolling and easing up off of the stops.

 

Yeah I totally agree with the not turning the wheel unless moving etc, unfortunately, I had cars park about a 18" away from my front and rear bumpers, so I had no choice. Well, I take that back, I guess I could have just taken advantage of the idi torque and just pushed the little buggers away from my truck until I had enough room to get out. That would have been a lot more fun and a good lesson to the *******s that park that close.

 

sounds like you overheated the pump. if need be you can drain part of the fluid out of the system to make driving easier till fix it.

 

Thanks, so it sounds like I should try replacing the pump to fix it? I suppose that is good news, as the pump is a lot easier to replace than the sector.

 

It was the pump, put a new one on and it worked fine.

 

I was going to say pump. After replacing my pump, steering gear and lines, I can sit at a stop and turn my wheels effortlessly. I never turn my wheels hard into full lock (stopped at steering stops) and hold it there. My wife does that and it drives me NUTS.