Reading about people's squealing drive belts on here made me think of something that happened to my Pontiac wagon a few years ago, which I thought I would share for entertainment/educational purposes.

Symptoms: Power steering would go out, making car very difficult to steer. Other times the steering would slip instead! The slipping problem seemed more severe in rainy weather, but either way both problems were intermittent.

Discovery: The power steering pump was leaking, causing the loss of system pressure and thus the loss of power steering. BUT it was leaking onto the power steering belt, causing it to slip!!!

My dad almost died laughing when he figured it out.

Ral