Power Steering nonlinear when cold, goes away when warm

[ThomVolvo]

Hey, this problem is very disconcerting....wife has a pristine, clean history, 2013 C70 with 53k miles, bought used from a Volvo dealer in Vegas and was complaining that steering would sometimes be stiff when turning left, and when the car was cold...I tried several times to recreate the issue, and did notice that it was a bit nonlinear when turning mostly to the left, but I deemed it a minor nuisance saying "yeah honey, they all do this when they are cold". Guys, if you are married, I do not recommend my remarks as your course of action...after a couple of weeks of me thinking it was all in her head, she took the car to a bonafide mechanic... after an hour of 'troubleshooting" he came back with an $1800+ estimate to replace Power Steering Box...I nearly evacuated my bowels...how could something as fundamental as Power Steering go bad in a Volvo, the premier marque of Safety, in a car with 53k, with no accidents, no bare knuckle driving over the Kalahari desert in January, or doing doughnuts in an open parking lot with dividers after an ice storm. C'mon man this is a frickin Volvo, things like steering aint posedta fail at 53k...so I say 'hell baby,let's get a second opinion" so while I was taking it (on a cold morning) to the renowned Park Place Volvo for a $125 Power Steering Flush, something a working slob can afford...on the way I was nearly taken out by an oncoming minibus full of Latino senior citizens when I tried to change lanes and the power steering ungracefully kicked in...If I had died, my wife would have been grinning ear to ear at my funeral...anyway, after the flush I thought it was as smooth as a 40 year old Tequila from Oaxaca...until my wife drove it 5 hours later...same problem...someone save my male engineering dignity and tell me what the real problem is? My contention is, if it is the power steering box, and the rack & pinion, it would fail 100% of the time, not just when the car is cold!