Reconditioned rack fitted steering warning help

[GreenV8S]

I've been somewhat close to that in the distant past, when the bottom balljoint sheared on my Mini Metro (remember them?). It went while I was on the motorway. Due to the steering geometry the wheel actually stayed in position, but acted like a castor wheel and produced no side force regardless of any steering input. Just to add to the confusion, when stationary the wheel did actually move with the steering wheel as normal and nothing was obviously out of place, just drove like I had a flat tyre when I obviously hadn't.

I did eventually complete the journey. The cause of the problem made itself clear a few hours later when I needed to back the car up, and the front suspension promptly collapsed.

[den9112]

Quick update on my steering rack issues ....

It as turned out to be a very expensive fix for a problem that the garage did not fix
1 Car goes to garage for mechanical diagnostic.
2 New steering rack needed
3 Recon rack acquired
4Recon rack fitted
5 Problem still there (creaking when steering lock to lock)
6New top strut bearing as it must be that (fiitted free)
7Problem still there
8Take car for tracking (my cost)
9 Inner tyre rubbing on offside full lock ,take it back for tracking check
10 Tracking fine must be garages issue with fitting
11 Many hours waiting the day after to solve this issue
12 Issue found mechanics as not centred steering rack etc finally i get it back
13 Take car for tracking again my cost this time i went to kwik fit ,basically only place open and a second opinion tracking was out as was to be expected but no rubbing on inner tyre and guy told me tracking rods looked pretty even with no obvious issues ..
14 Took car today for coding the new steering rack £180 was not going to go for the £100 offered that fitted the rack said his mate could do it for ..
15 Literally just got the car back slight issue with the DSC but that turned out to be initializing and eventually the light as gone out ....Done a motorway run and all appears fine ....



The most annoying outcome of the weekend is that it looks like it was a £5.00 fix that as solved my creaking problem...On Sunday afternoon i sprayed my upper engine mount which contains a large rubber piece with silicon spray the only part of the car that did not have the wd40/silocon spray treatment and guess what my creaking as gone ....I dont know what lesson i have learnt here but i think there are quite a few...

[paul_c123]

I think the lesson here is, be sure of the diagnosis before throwing parts at a car. Especially if they're expensive parts that you can't fit yourself and are relying on others to do that work.

Sometimes its appropriate to "have a guess" and throw a part at a car, for example if that part is simple/cheap to fit and the diagnosis would be complicated without it.

Thank you for sharing though, and hopefully it will be a good illustration for others.

[den9112]

I must admit when the car was on the ramps and from underneath and grabbing the wheels and turning them the sound did appear to come from offside were the electric power steering motor was located ,its quite large and blocks off anything above it and guess whats above it the engine mount ....I di have thoughts above the steering rack one owner with 60k serviced better than it was in its first 3 years , anything with a Turbo i service every 6k or 6 months with Millers nanodrive oil oem filters .
Car is treated like a bay and only gets in sports mode on the odd sunday afternoon trip out ...i was not convinced the rack would have gone ,never had a rack go on me in all my driving days ...Anyway big lesson learnt here although when i was younger i would have waited until the creaking sound turned in to a banging sound then i would have known were the problem was ,now im older i thought i would be responsible and sort it quickly think i might turn back to the old ways ...

[Huzzah]

A sqeak from the front suspension (dampers prime suspect) turned out to be a bonnet latch. A dab of grease cured it.

(So you're not alone)

[den9112]

I thought i would update the thread as i have now found what the issue was after spending over £1000 it turned out to be a nearside drop link .