Today on the way to work, my steering started to act like the car was off (really stiff) as I was turning right (from a dead stop).

Did it a second time as I was turning left (again from a dead stop).

I checked the PS reservoir, and the level was fine, tho I didn't get a chance to look at the color or smell it to see if it was burnt.

There isn't really much else symptom wise. I was driving on the highway (65-75 mph) and had no issues.

It kind of feels like how in old cars if you turn off the ingition the steering like freezes for a second. But in this case I was able to force the steering wheel free (for lack of a better word).

Any ideas?

I'm hoping it's not the steering rack, I replaced that on my 93, and will never do that again.

Thanks in advance
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1985 245. 246K Gone..but not forgotten. Sold in 2013, found 2018! Still running on the road. Of course. 1993 Volvo 850 soon to be gone

I'm having codes p0136 and p0141 (I'm recalling them from memory).

I replaced the plug for one of the O2 sensors (the car side not the O2 side).

When I was doing this, I noticed that sheathing of one of the wires (the largest of the 4 wires, a green I believe) looked a little melted (long story short I ripped the plug apart by accident).

After replacing the plug, I keep getting a CEL show up, indicating the rear O2 sensor is the issue.

When I replaced the plug, I use heat shrink around the largest wire on the harness (that's the one that looked melted a bit).

Could that heat shrink on the largest wire be causing the issue?
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1985 245. 246K Gone..but not forgotten. Sold in 2013, found 2018! Still running on the road. Of course. 1993 Volvo 850 soon to be gone

I'm trying to conjure up an image of the wires. I thought they were all 20ga, equal in size. The shrink wrap is not a problem, but burned wires trying to conduct very low voltages??? You might have a problem there.

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Keeping it running is better than buying new

Im wondering if the wire sheething was melted because of when it got stuck on my steering shaft (I think I wrote about that already, so that's why I didn't include it in the new message here).

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1985 245. 246K Gone..but not forgotten. Sold in 2013, found 2018! Still running on the road. Of course. 1993 Volvo 850 soon to be gone

The steering shaft may have damaged the wiring, stretching/pulling the wires apart, before breaking the plug.
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Keeping it running is better than buying new

I replaced the plug (the car side, not the O2 side), as it was broken.

I'm wondering if the plug from the O2 sensor itself was buggered up. I'll eventually get a chance to look tomorrow. But then I'm out of the state for a week
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1985 245. 246K Gone..but not forgotten. Sold in 2013, found 2018! Still running on the road. Of course. 1993 Volvo 850 soon to be gone

Though I'm not entirely sure how, the O2 wire got wrapped around the steering column, and the plug (from the car) got destroyed. So I had to go to the PNP to get a new one, and 5 bucks later, the car is fixed.
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1985 245. 246K Gone..but not forgotten. Sold in 2013, found 2018! Still running on the road. Of course. 1993 Volvo 850 soon to be gone

Sounds like one of your steering shaft u-joints is starting to freeze up. Happened on both my 95 850 and 90 240. After many years road grime gets into the u-joints. Usually it is the lower one near the steering rack that is problematic. Good news is there is an easy cure! Slowly rotate your steering lock to lock for a few minutes while periodically spraying WD-40 into the u-joint. Try to hit it at different angles. Might take a few tries. Some folks follow up the WD-40 with a penetrating oil treatment.
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Will I buy another Volvo??? We'll see....

Thanks for that tip. I will look into it too.

BUT I'm about 90% sure I know what happened.

As I was driving around (well after it happened, and about 2 hours of having the car sit), I got a CEL light. Ran a code, and it was an O2 sensor.

Which if any of you know of my postings, I replaced both of them earlier in the year.

This led me down the rabbit hole of thinking "hey, you know it felt like the steering wheel was caught on something and just broke whatever it was caught on!"

(like if you drag an extension cord and it gets snagged on something, you pull it and feel the tension and then you can tell when it's released).

So when i got home tonight, I looked at the engine compartment and it appears that there is a wire wrapped around the steering column (HOW it got there I have no idea...but it explains the issues almost perfectly).
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1985 245. 246K Gone..but not forgotten. Sold in 2013, found 2018! Still running on the road. Of course. 1993 Volvo 850 soon to be gone