I've just run into a weird issue. The other day I was driving to the gas station to get some fuel for the lawn mower (constant rain keeps me mowing a lot! ) Got the the entry area of the curb and there were these huge potholes I was not aware of. In a panic I slowed and shifted incorrectly and stalled the car with a rough shudder. I restarted the car and the PS was gone. I drove home and discovered that the PS fluid was a little low so I topped it off and tried it. No joy. I checked the 5amp fan fuse. It's good. I checked continuity on the 100amp fuse on the underside of the engine fuse box. It tested as good. Only thing to check, I think, is to see if somehow the shudder might have shaken a connection loose. The pump was replaced with a unit from FCP a few years ago and has worked perfectly with no issues.

I also scanned the car to make sure there were no weird codes. It's good. I cannot believe that a PS pump would just fail out of the blue with absolutely no warning...

Anyone have any other ideas as to what else I might check?

 

Car you hear the powersteering pump running and whining?

Something else that comes to mind is that maybe it's not the pump but something else that makes the steering hard. I've had a R50 with very heavy steering and it turned out to be that the steering column ujoint seized up. So bad the car didn't even auto center after a corner.

 

Found the issue. As I suspected the power connector was disconnected. Plugged it back in and it's all good!