Steering seems hard in morning

[william]

From past weeks, i am experiencing the steering hardness in morning when i pick the car and few minutes of driving it becomes normal and power assist comes. Is there any indication of some part or component is failing on my Qx4, rest all is good and its been great car since 3 years of ownership. Appreciate any timely advise mate. Thanks.

[romeorock]

When you start the car in the morning, car steering rack is cold and the clearance in the spool valve are very big. When the hydraulic pressure from your steering pump comes past the grooves worn in spool valve housing, which causes a tremendous loss of pressure and don't support steering assist which makes your steering hard in the morning.

When you start driving your car steering rack start getting warmed up, which decrease the clearance in the spool valve and reduce the seepage beyond the groves and more steering oil (fluid) pressure reaches where it is supposed to go which start assisting the power to the steering. This type of issue is caused by wearing of spool valve housing in the steering rack.

Only cure to fix this issue is you need to change the steering pump rack or ignore until it becomes really severe and start bothering you through out the day. As in current state also it can live for 1-2 years easy.