sweet100

Tomorrow my newly-ordered remanufactured steering rack will be here. As an oil-changing guy, I am psyching up to replace it soon. I will keep updating this post. If you didn't see me, I must be crushed under the car.

If you want to remind me anything for the steering rack replacement, I cannot appreciate it enough.

By the way, I have access to 2009 service manual. Feel free to ask me for any diagram as I will access this forum more frequently.

Rainbird

Please take and post photos of this project.

sweet100

Good idea! I will try to put my phone into a zip bag!

trdtrung

They're pretty easy and straight forward. I drain the ps reservoir before I remove the lines so not as much fluid will leak out

sweet100

@trdtrung, thanks for encouraging me, it helps!

That's a good idea to clear the reservoir first. I will find out a hand sanitizer nozzle.

trdtrung

Some tips that will help you that may not be in the service manual:

Make sure you lock your steering wheel, I loop the seat belt through the bottom opening of the steering wheel. This prevents damage to your spiral cable if your steering wheel starts to move when the rack is disconnected, it also keeps your steering wheel locked in a centered position.

Before you remove the old tie rods, count the threads and install the outer tie rods on the new rack at the same position. This will help keep your wheels straight enough to drive it to an alignment shop. (Also loosen the locking nuts on the tie rod before you remove the outer tie rod from the knuckle, because it can be a pita to remove later)

- count threads
- loosen lock nuts
- remove outer tie rods from knuckles

mandyfig

Wow good tips! Not that I want to do this repair.

sweet100

@trdtrung, Thanks a lot for the tips again! You are right that the service manual doesn't help much. It has 4 diagrams, but none of them mention the two fluid pipes going to pump and reservoir. Actually one of your tips reminds me that I probably need to figure out an enhanced version of steering wheel lock mechanism, because of my 5-year-old loves to "help"!

Here is the items I got so far


the rack $150 from Ebay, the two Qt fluid $14 from Advanced Auto

You can see the rack is turned to one side because one boot is compressed. I figured that I better center the rack now. THen I turned the shaft, and found it has 2 and a half turn from end to end, Then I gave it 1 and 1/4 turn from one end.

I also counted the teeth number of the shaft. It has 36.

sweet100

Here is the picture after adjustment. You may have noticed the black stuff at the bottom. It is my son's hair, he tried very hard to get into the picture.



I am hoping I don't need to do a wheel alignment because I just did it a few months ago. That's why I counted the shaft teeth. Now I know the slightest adjustment it can give me is 10 degrees. Any smaller adjustment will need rods adjustment.

I really don't know if this calculation will help or not. I only changed oil before. We will see.

sweet100

The job is done. I can barely lift my head during sleep last night after two days of intense work!

Now the steering is smooth. It also fixed some clunk while accelerating or cornering.

@Rainbird, I apologize that I don't have good picture. I did tried, but the-phone-in-zipbag idea is horrible. It doesn't work well. My little helper doesn't help much, he basically left me alone. I am really wondering how other guys take good picture.

A few tips .

I took out 5 screws of the sway bar. 4 on the frame, 1 on the driver side strut and this one needs an alien key. It gave me much more room, while it is still an art to pull the old rack out and put the new one in.

I used a rope to tie around both side of the two wheels on each side, and aligned them, made sure the bubble is in the middle at a level I put on steering wheel, then connect the steering column and the rack. Now the steering wheel are perfectly straight. The only problem is that I found the rear wheels are toed. I believe the alignment shop did a terrible job for me a few month ago. That will be my next project.

Kids-proof steering wheel lock. I put both front window down, put a long PVC pipe across them, then zip tie the steering wheel with the pipe. It works just perfect.


My lessons

forgot to clear the oil in the pump

I should have adjusted the new rack to the same steering position as the bad one. I connected column and rack twice because the first attempt off-centered the steering wheel horribly! So on top of trdtrung's tip of counting the outer tire rod, I would say adjust the steering position is very important too.


Ask me any questions while my can still remember everything.