So basically, when my car is stopped it is very difficult to turn the wheels. I have to put muscle into it. When I'm moving it becomes easier however. I took my car in today to get an oil change and they said the power steering fluid looked good. What gives? Any suggestions on what should be changed or taken care of?

I have a 1991 Honda Accord by the way.

 

Either dead P/S pump or your rack-N-pinion gave out.

 

Are either of those fixes expensive at the auto shop? I'm real busy with school finals so i need this fixed quick by a professional instead of me trying to learn. My car started to smell like something was burning today. I'll probably take it in tomorrow.

 

You can just pull another power steering pump from the junkyard but the leading cause of the pump to fail is the fluid leaks out because of a leak at a hose connection or a hose and it pumps air which kills the pump or the rack.

See if your reservoir is full. If not, then there is a leak somewhere. It could be at the pump or it could be elsewhere. If it's the pump then you just need another junkyard pump from a car that has a nonleaking pump. I would get gasket that the high pressure hose connects to the pump and also the other low pressure hoses(the ones that aren't hard).

You can also rebuild your own by getting a power steering rebuild kit for $15 or so from the parts store and take yours apart and rebuild it. If you do this, keep in mind the pulley bolt is reverse threaded. You go clockwise to take it off and counterclockwise to tighten it.

 

Yup, I would replace the pump if it's covered in pwr str fluid.