I took my old 96 Stratus (170,000 miles) out for a drive. On the way back to my house I pushed the car hard to see how well the transmission would shift and it did fine. However, my power steering failed. I put it in the garage and looked at the belts and they look fine and appear to have the correct tension. I was planning on bringing the car to the Dodge tech tomorrow, after a few hours of letting the car rest, I tried the power steering again and it appears to be working normally now. Any ideas why I would lose power only to have it return a couple of hours later?

 

No definite answers here, but I'd check for leaks and fitting of hoses.