Power steering . . .

[Ice Cat ^. .^ ~]

Hi
Happy New Year to everyone.

This is the second car which the has happened with within a year.
Power steering is much stiffer than it should be.
The power steering container holds fluid.   First it happened on the
'88 5000.  That was my husband's car for about a year.   We put that
away for a while in the garage.    So we took out the '87 5000 for
the winter which has great heated seats.   My husband drove that car
last year for about a month and now I am driving it.

The stiffness didn't seem to bother my husband on his car, but we
both need to drive this one and I have a perpetual torn tendon in my
right shoulder and it is really aggravating the situation.

The idle stabilizer valve needs to be replaced . . . would have have
anything to do with it?
We are shopping to find the cheapest idle stabilizer right now.

Does sitting allow dirt to form and clog something in the power
steering/power brake system?  Or is there some other sensor which we
need to look at?

Could it be from a vacuum leak, by chance?

Thanks !
Fay
'89 Audi 200 Turbo (No Q) Automatic
'88 Audi 5000 S Auto
'87 Audi 5000 S Auto
http://home.earthlink.net/~iceisit/