Astra AH Power Steering issue

Hi all,

Long time lurker, first time poster.

I have a 2005 AH Astra Wagon.

On the weekend it had a weird problem with the power steering. My wife was driving and she reported that when she started the car and went to drive off, the steering was extremely heavy, to the point where she wouldn't drive it and she parked it and took our other car. The problem was verified by someone else so she definitely wasn't imagining it. She didn't notice any warning lights on the dashboard at the time, although she wouldn't have been looking for them.

She went out for a couple of hours and then returned home and tried the Astra again, and everything was ok!

I then took it for a drive for an hour and a half or so and everything was fine.

When I got home I checked for fault codes (none) and checked the power steering fluid (fine).

After a bit of Googling of the Astra's electrical power steering pump, I could not find any references to this particular issue. There was a lot of discussion around alternators, and I'll be checking that next.

Has anyone has this issue or have any ideas about what it could be and how I could sort it out?

Thanks!