Im just here for some quick info. My girlfriend has a 96 dodge stratus with a 2.4 but my question is about the power steering. It started getting hard to steer and now it has nothing unless your moving pretty good. I sucked all the old fluid out of the reservoir and added new, it helped for a little while now its not working at all again.

My question is it just the pump just out or is it the steering rack?

The pump doesn't make any noise at all and the belt is in good shape.

When I pulled the fluid out of the reservoir it looked really dark but I couldn't tell whether it was just straight power steering fluid or maybe trans fluid.

 

Did you try unplugging the return line from the reservoir and pumping out all the fluid?

 

Problem solved I finally got a chance to look at everything this past weekend when I put a wheel bearing on it. The last time I looked at the belt was in September when I put an a/c compressor on it and everything was good. But when I looked at it Saturday It was just hanging there so problem solved.