Steering issues?

[hatchback]

Alrighty. Lately I've been hearing some groaning/grinding noises from my car when making low speed turns; primarily when taking slow turns into my driveway or when maneuvering into our out of parking spots. Rack & pinion going out? Bearings going bad somewhere? Not real sure what the set-up is for the car; just reporting what I'm hearing while performing low-speed maneuvers.

Car is a 2002 VW GTI 1.8T with 74k miles on it. 5-speed manual transmission.

Thanks, in advance, for your help!

[oldschoolvw]

It could be the power steering pump. Check your power steering fluid.

[65dunebuggy]

The pump is probably on its way out

[hatchback]

Pictures of the fluid:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_lFxACCGmNSo/TKJxINdEyxI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/PCFzBWNXgJs/fluid1.jpg

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_lFxACCGmNSo/TKJxIZmb40I/AAAAAAAAAQU/OSDg3iEBjDE/fluid2.jpg

[MurA1]

Looks decent. Just make sure its full. Or if you want to see if the pump is eating itself you could take a magnet to the fluid and see if you see any particals stick to the mag.

[ChinaMan]

could be ball joints going bad or control arms starting to go bad

[MurA1]

^^^ those will not grind or growl. However they will tick/clunk/thud.

CV axles sometimes grind.

[hatchback]

Yeah, it's more of a creaking noise. Not a whining noise. It sounds like the floorboards of an old house or an old man getting out of bed in the winter.

[MurA1]

possibly a strut bearing. I have heard those make a groaning noise before instead of a clunk.

[hatchback]

Had Whitedog look at it when the did a winter check on my fluids this week. They said it's the strut mount and bearing and should be under $200 to fix. Nothing serious, probably going to get it fixed next month because of monies.

Thanks for the input, guys!