Inquisitor

As some have suggested, it was low power steering fluid. According to him, the fluid is mineral oil based (due to environmental regulations), which means that it tends to evaporate more quickly. He said he checked for leaks, just in case, but found nothing. I asked if that meant I should keep a store of power steering fluid at home, and he said that or just bring the car in every 6-7K to top off.

This morning on cold start, the only sound was the sweet, sweet burble of the engine. So there you go.

(For reference, '05 cab.)

JDBlueAudiS4

The Tensioner TSB and low PS fluid. My dealer gave me a thing of PS fluid so I can top off when ever needed. Seems like a pretty common problem as we got the same resolutions last year when it first started popping up.

DrGP

either doesn't know where it is going or feels it is cheaper to continually add fluid rather than actually fix the problem. The service mgr also gave me a bottle of PS fluid to add as needed. BTW make sure the PS fluid level is 10 mms above the MAX line as per Audi TSB. Some B5 owners have reported that their steering boxes were filled with PS fluid.

Inquisitor

Although, can't you still have evaporation in a closed system? I suppose there would be a lot of pressure along with it, but hypothetically possible?