stiff in the morning...

[pukar]

hi, recently my power steering is a bit stiff when first moving off, but loosens up after a few metres...any ideas?

[BenHar]

Check the belt is not slipping.

Ben

[pukar]

theres no noises/screeching, would a slipping belt be noisy, esp on full lock?

[Brianmoooore]

theres no noises/screeching, would a slipping belt be noisy, esp on full lock?

Normally, yes, but not necessarily, and it's also an easy thing to check, at no cost.
Check that it's tight, and also check that it's not so worn that it's running on the bottom of the 'vee', and on its inside edge, rather than the sides.

[Carmo13]

I had the opposite problem once when my steering was fine when cold, but got heavier as the engine warmed up. This was due to a loose belt (getting looser as it expanded with heat) which was subsequently due to worn teeth on the tensioner which are worth checking.
The belt made no noise when it was loose.

[pukar]

thanks for all that advice, i will check it out on sunday..

[tha881]

Could be the bearing at the bottom of the steering column?

The wiki says it can give a feeling of stiff steering, drill a small hole in the column and spray some Wd40 followed by some 3 in 1 or similar