Its full of fluid. Maybe the belt is slipping. Now last night i did pull off the steering shaft with the two u joints in it and worked them around and sprayed them down with pb blaster to clean it out and free it up, then some wd-40 so lubricate it. It didnt feel bound up. i did bang it around a bit to knock anything loose. Then when driving to work this morning, i didnt notice any feeling of hard to turn. This reallly seems inconsistant. Some times it does it, sometimes it doesnt, sometimes its when i turn left, sometimes right, sometimes both, when the car is hot or cold.

Im going to pull the wheels off tonight and check things.

But i do want to mention that the steering rack is under 2 yrs old, which included the steering gear as well. Not to say that it couldnt go bad, but i would hope not. So i guess im down to the pump or a joint somewhere. Or maybe it was some junk in the steering shaft joints that just needed knocked out.