I recently bought a used '04 Impala and I noticed the power steering pump wheezes a little excessively when driving. I've heard GM's pumps in general do wheeze a bit when it's cold out, but you can actually feel it vibrate in the steering wheel when making tighter turns.

I thought I'd start looking into it by checking the fluid. Holy smokes, they put the pump in the most inaccessible spot they could!! On the passenger side, basically underneath the engine... close to the firewall!! I can't even SEE the darn thing from up top!

Anyone have any suggestions how to access this thing?

You can remove the front dog bones/motor mounts and rock the engine cradle forward, make sure you support block it.

FWIW the PS on my 2002 monte carlo made noise nearly the entire 195,000 miles I owned it, other than the noise it worked fine the entire time.