im gonna look into buying a bottle of that as well as it probably wouldnt hurt anything to at least try it.

 

I had a power steering pressure hose leak, which wreaked havoc on my 2004 RX 330 (170,000 miles) It felt like driving over bumps when there were no bumps. I had the entire front end replaced, struts, rack and pinion, control arms, ball joints, tie rods, and even the bearings on both wheels. Cost? About $3,000. But it runs like new.

 

yep! the same thing happened to my 07 rx350; had the high pressure power steering hose go bust on me and sprayed fluid all over the underside of the chassis; cost was about 1100 bucks! can u say ouch? i can!

 

Hard to know how much bull is being slung without talking to your trusted mechanic. Go see him/her immediately, please.
I just had mine look at my boot yesterday. I was shocked to find the bottom half looked like it had been chewed away! I saw $$$.
Ken looked at it while changing the oil and said "$200-250, whenever you get around to it. Just drive, not dangerous. Come back and fix it when you want." So it really depends on whether or not it is leaking, open to stuff getting in the steering box, etc. Yes, a full steering box is gonna have a Lexus price tag, while the boot is a Toyota boot and a bit of labor.

 

yikes!!! i guess i probably should have mine looked at soon; but im probably still gonna get a bottle of that stop leak stuff and toss it in the power steering reservoir.

 

So in the end, it was a 2+ week wait for an appointment at the dealer to perform the RH side overhaul - quoted at $700

Since there was no guarantee it wouldn't evolve into the bigger service anyway we went to a local high end shop and got the whole front end remanufactured part and alignment for $1129 out the door - this cover both sides.

Wish I took the car for more regular inspections and we could have potentially caught it and maybe saved some expense - but I have a feeling this is just something that's going to happen to everyone. My 2009 is 11 years old going on 12 so it's time for a newer car anyway! :-)

 

Thank you for sharing your fix!

 

Thanks for updating us. To be honest, in this specific case, I personally don't think regular maintenance would have helped. Like I mentioned on my first post, this was and still is a big issue and countless members on here were/are affected. Guess it just wasn't widespread enough through the Toyota lineup to become a recall, but it's a full TSB. I believe it was a QC issue with the seals, this is not normal for my experience with Toyota racks.

My 2007 Camry rack never leaked and I took that thing to 190K miles. I only have 110K on my RX currently and it leaked at 80K. Glad my newer cars are now electric steering, takes one fluid out of the equation.

 

Good point about electric steering, sounds like a good idea for sure. Still, my newer Mazda uses fluid and it turns so well. When it's done right, hydraulic feels great. My RX steers so quickly and lightly, I just never loved how it feels. Rack replaced prior to my ownership as well at about 60k. It's like they designed it to turn as light as possible under super pressure everywhere, really lacking feedback. When you turn the wheel, the car turns asap and there is little sense of road resistance. I don't know how people here feel - but backing up in this car has always felt a little weird to me too.

 

like i said earlier guess i better have my rack and boot seals looked at soon,. either way it doesnt sound like a small job.