2004 Dodge Dakota with hard steering problems on occasion for over a year. Replaced steering shaft and other components related to hard steering. On cold mornings steering sometimes is hard until vehicle warms up. This Oct 18th i was still having hard steering problems so i pulled out as much steering fluid as i could out of steering fluid reservoir with a turkey baster and replaced fluid with ATF 4 tranny fluid. What finally happened was my truck blew out most of my antifreeze the next day. I took truck in to find out my water pump was weak so it was not turning the serpentine belt to turn radiator fan and steering pump pully fast enough so the truck got hot and blew out my antifreeze from radiator. Hard steering was caused by a weak water pump. Go figure