powersteering

this morning my '97 Buick lesabre Made a sound like we ran something over, then all of a sudden the power steering was gone and there was a squealing coming from the hood. Now after we shut off the car then restart it the belt squeals for a couple of seconds then shuts off but when i turn the wheel the power steering squeals in both directions. I tried looking for the power steering cap to check the fluids and I can't find the cap. any suggestions for me?

clueless,

It sounds like a belt broke, as in your power steering. It also sounds like it may be stuck in between a pulley and somewhere else.When u said Now after we shut off the car then restart it the belt squeals for a couple of seconds then shuts off did you mean it stops squealing? Or the car shuts off? Also, when you turn the steering wheel, is it harder than normal to turn the wheel? If it is, I would say it is the belt from the power steering, but it is possible that the belt fell of another pulley, so the steering pump is still working, but it makes the noise. Another possibility is the pump went out, maybe a bad bearing. My Buick is not here, so i can't take a pic of the pump/reservoir, but I saw someone said the looked at ebay and found pics from inside the engine, cuz people like to show/see the pics, maybe there is a pic there. Hope this helps, or is enough to get you started in the right direction.