My Mom has a 2001 Toyota Avalon with low miles & it will randomly feel like it has lost power steering. My Mother is 75 yrs. old & weighs all of about 90 pounds. I am finding through my research that there was a recall for steering issues in which improper casting of the steering lock bar causes the steering column bracket to crack & expand causing a similar issue but some people say it's a separate issue.

The power steering fluid has been changed twice & seems to help for a while but does not actually fix the issue. We are trying to figure out what to do next, replace Rack & Pinion, U-joint, Power Steering Pump, or what?

Have any of you any experience with this specific issue & what solved the problem? My Mom already hates to drive & my Dad passed away 3 months ago so she lives out in the middle of nowhere all by herself. She has to have a car that won't be an issue if she goes to drive it.

Thanks for any help.

If I were diagnosing this, I'd do a visual inspection, starting with the steering pump belt. A loose or hanging in tatters belt can cause odd symptoms. It can only be seen by putting the car up and taking the right front wheel and splash guard off. Steering pumps on older models are bad for leaking, but usually not for complete loss of assist.

quote:

U-joint

There are two of these in an intermediate shaft between the column and rack. I have never seen these joints bad. The shaft is under the dash and not subject to corrosion. Sometimes the slip joint can stick and cause odd clunking. If a joint were to bind, it would do it all the time, not intermittently, and you wouldn't get complete loss of assist, just a bind every half turn or quarter turn of the steering wheel.

Seen a few Rack failures on those, If it has oil inside the bellows (dust boots) on tie rods.
Wont be enough to leak externally yet, but there should be no oil inside the boots, oil loss there is from the internal rack seals, another term is "morning sickness" the seals get rock hard when cold then start to seal up when it warms up, causing loss of assist when the car is cold.

When the power steering pump went out on my Tundra, it behaved as you describe. Intermittent failure with increasing frequency became dangerous.

Following - experiencing a similar issue with my 03 Camry.

Did you find anything out? This kind of thing is helpful to me.

there's a TSB on noisy intermediate shafts for later model years. I replaced mine....it hadn't seized but was super noisy.