Had a problem with steering a number of times lately, but only while trying to turn sharply. Steering on highway was not a real problem but seemed stiff. Thought it was the power steering unit, so took it to a garage to have it checked out. They said it was not the power steering pump but the steering gear. Bigga bucks to fix but can't be driving it like it was.
Has anyone experienced a similar problem and was told it was the steering gear?

by "steering gear," you mean the actual steering box itself?

If so, I don't believe it. I've been a car guy 44 years and I've never seen a steering box fail yet.

It'* the pump. I'd bet a lot on that.

No, it is the gear in the rack and pinion.
When I first took it in, the guy thought it was either the rack and pinion or the pump.

Not sure what years and makes, but GM issued a recall on some of there rack and pinions due to a failed bearing. Someone here should know if the 99 Bonne was included or not.

It sounds highly dubious to me. I'd have another garage check it out at the very least.

Are you sure the PS reservoir is full?

Reservoir is full. Also the system was flushed Mar 04.

Haven't seen it on a bonne... but I had a Chevy pickup 97 that needed to have the box rebuilt at 50K. Whole time I was screaming about it being crap. Except I had it checked by many. It was a box and extremely uncommon.

I have asked to have the old part saved. Maybe I can take a pic of the old gear and post it here. Really unusual but rack and pinion is not rocket science and thought it should last longer.

Yours would be the first rack failure that I can recall here. It does happen. I'd love to see pics of those parts when you get them.

Well I got the steering gear problem fixed today, but could not have the old one because there is a $100 core charge. Not about to pay that. Could not get a pick of the internal gear part since it is sealed but had a talk with the guy who did the work. He said that there is valves in there that control the gear and that one of the valves was damaged or malfunctioning. He said that it would only be a matter of time, maybe tomorrow or the next day and I would not be able to steer the car at all. He also told me that the fluid was filthy, which surprised me since I had a flush done in Mar 2004. He flushed the entire system for me and gave me a word of warning about flushes. Some people say they flush the system but unless it is done correctly the fluid in the rack and pinion system never gets flushed out. I have test driven the car, trying to get it to do what it did before and after an hour there was no indication of lock up. Believe the problem is solved. I had the work done at a GM place and it is guaranteed, so if I have the problem again in the near future, I am covered. It steers beautifully now.
Sorry no pics.