I'm guessing Dodge put the same power steering system into many more cars than my 98 Intrepid (3.2 engine) so I wonder if anyone else has from the northern climes has experienced a nasty grinding/groaning sound for the first 15 seconds or so after starting up their cars when it's freezing or below. For some reason 32 degrees seems to be the benchmark. My mechanic said Intrepids were recalled for this, they replaced the fluid with something else, and it was "better" but not remotely gone.

The noise is loud enough to make people many car lengths away in a parking lot look at you like you just started up a chipper/shredder! But as I said it goes away in 10-20 seconds and does not come back until it all cools down again.

The car has 127,000 miles so I presume it needs a new pump, but does power steering fluid freeze?

 

consider this. the ps on my old chevy truck started groaning and feeling tight. i bought a turkey baster at walmart and a quart of ps fluid at autozone. can't remember what kind, maybe valvoline.

using the turkey baster i sucked all the fluid i could from the reservoir and refilled it. the oil was really nasty looking. then started it up and drove it around the block. noise was gone. shut it off and did it again. drove it around and then check how it looked with the baster. not bad (and i didn't have enough oil for a 3rd time), so i left it at that.

i think the groaning noise is oil bypassing the seals. oil does not freeze, but cold weather makes oil thicker and rubber stiffer.