Pulled the car into the garage out of the cold wind to find the source of the loud squeaky noise at cold start and periodically after....Hoped it would just be an idler or tensioner pulley. Nope. Can't be that easy. Water pump. Previous owner put an aluminum pulley on the water pump. It clearly has a groove worn in it from the belt. Not a huge deal.
Even better news, though. Short version to leave out all the theatrics....
Steering rack is puking fluid out of the driver's side seal.
View attachment 23880
Yay!.
After the wife's ER visit last night, this isn't what I wanted to see.