I've recently been blessed with a job that affords me the ability to
have enough extra cash to get the numerous issues with my car fixed,
and this particular one is of high annoyance:

In April of '04, I had my brakes done at a Midas shop. They checked all
my fluids for me as well, but forgot to place the PS cap on. Six months
later, I realize that I'm driving without a cap and that the fluid's a
nasty looking orange color. I do nothing about it. A few months later,
my steering starts to get...resistant. On cold mornings, my car
develops a very loud rattling noise. My steering performance at a dead
stop continues to worsen throughout that winter coming into '05. The
rattling also gets more prevalent, occuring on both warm and cold
mornings before the car itself warms up.

I bought a power steering cap this past spring (finally), so I no
longer leak fluid everywhere when I hit a bump, but my steering's just
as bad as ever. The fluid levels are fine, however it's still a dirty
orange color. The rattling and poor steering are definitely on my
nerves.

My car's steering works fine if I'm pressing the gas, but at a dead
stop or when I'm slowing down the performance goes right down the
toilet.

A friend of mine had mentioned that the pump would probably need to be
replaced, but I thought I'd post here to see what might also be causing
the problem, if anything.

1998 Saturn SL2  170k miles.

Thanks in advance!