Renault Clio 3. Noise in steering wheel

My mother have a Clio III (y 2012) DCi. I noticed something strange.

I describe the issue here:

Suppose the car is parked and I’m about to leave. When I turn the
steering wheel it makes an unusual noise.

The noise it makes is not crackling nor of high volume. Rather, I hear
a kind of smooth friction, as if two smooth surfaces were rubbing
against each other.

A mechanic told me that could be the first symptoms of a power steering breakdown. But I don’t know. What the good diagnosis could be?

N.B. If another details are needed just tell me.

EDIT : In this link you can hear the upsaid noise (in secondes 2 and 7).