So here's whats going on. When I first start my truck in the morning, my power steering pump (at lease I think thats where it's coming from) squeals like a hog at a butcher block for the first mile or two or driving, then goes away. Then, once it goes away, I notice that it gets hard to turn the wheel (like an older truck with no power steering at all), so I'm guessing that the pump just dies out after the first few miles of driving, and thus there is no more squealing. I checked the power steering fluid, and the fluid level is fine, so I'm thinking that it's the pump. Any insight?

Secondly, when I first start my truck in the morning (engine cold) my idle is fine. After crusing at highway speeds enough to get the truck warm, when I come to a stop, my idle is really low, and it seems like it wants to die. So I have to give it a little throttle to keep her from dieing at stop lights. This only happens when I've warmed up the engine a good bit. Usually like when I've ran the engine for over 30 minutes at speeds around 60-70mph. And the idle is especially low when I turn it off after the engine has warmed up, and start her back up. I end up having to give it a lot of throttle for a good 30 seconds before the idle will stay steady enough for me not to have to keep on giving it gas. And I don't have a tach, so it's real hard for me to say what it's idleing at, just that it feels like it wants to die, and all the lights get real dim unless I give it some throttle. So, any clue as to whats going on here?

 

sounds like your powersteering pump might be bad and locking up, try takin off your belt to see if it solves your ideling problem

 

Take your power steering belt off, and see if the pump pulley turns easily... it should. If the power steering pump is OK, then you could always turn up the idle adjustment screw a little bit (if the 22RE has one, that is.)

 

Coolant temperature sensor. My guess.