Rep Power: 0

Not sure what the cause of this is but my Honda Civic 2003 has been having off and on steering issues.
If I steer a certain direction most of the time doing a hard turn towards the left my civic's steering is very hard as if a resistance is forcing it to steering into the opposing direction.
I had the car worked on last week and my mechanic replaced the front strut bearings and told me it should be good but it is still acting this way off and on I checked the power steering fluid and it seems topped up and I don't think it's a belt as I hear no squealing noise. I'm thinking it might be the actual pump.
Has anyone else had similar issues? 2003 Civic LX Coupe.

 
Rep Power: 518

A weak pump would affect BOTH directions. A pump doesn't care which direction you turn. It is only a pump.

If it steers hard only one direction, it will probably be in the rack. The valves that control the hydraulic assist pressure and direction are all in the rack.

But these would probably happen all the time.


But
If you hold the steering all the way to one side long enough to overheat the fluid, the pump can act like it quit until the fluid cools off a little bit.
(I get this whenever I'm bleeding air out of the steering in Odysseys that got a pump.)

How about a high pressure hose getting pinched or something?



HTH