Hey all, have to do this god forsaken rack on an 04 LX, called local Lexus, $1300 for the rack and $2300 total parts and labor. Does anyone have a currently good priced dealer that has reasonable prices in their area? This is a CT dealer. I saw some older posts of $5-600 range for the rack itself. Thanks in advance all!
Best steering rack OEM price currently?
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JunkCrzr89
Competent Ignoramoose
Probably McGeorge Toyota
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- #4
Yes, this one has the VCS, or what ever the acronym is for it. But $1300 seems real steep
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- #5
So the bushings are the main issue with the rack itself, but it has 227k on it. Lots of play in the bushings and it relates to the steering wheel. Is there any major issues driving it like this for a bit other then the wandering of the truck itself? I would thibk if I have to take the rack out to do bushing it’s going to be better off doing a whole new rack.
hoser
SILVER Star
If it's not leaking, just change out the bushings. Will have to go aftermarket poly though. Alternatively, you can use an LC rack. It's a direct swap. The gear ratio will be different but folks say they don't notice. The VGRS doesn't happen in the rack.
forum.ih8mud.com
LC versus LX Steering Rack ?
forum.ih8mud.com
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- #7
If it's not leaking, just change out the bushings. Will have to go aftermarket poly though. Alternatively, you can use an LC rack. It's a direct swap. The gear ratio will be different but folks say they don't notice. The VGRS doesn't happen in the rack.
LC versus LX Steering Rack ?
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The passengers side does have some moisture on it, but I don’t have much of a leak of fluid or loss of fluid from the res. The whole rack has to come out to get the bushings out though correct?
hoser
SILVER Star
I've only changed the bushings out on my '98 and the rack stayed in place.
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- #9
This is interesting, do they have to be pressed in and out? Just trying to mentally figure how you get them out looking at it. Would love to swap bushings and deal with the whole rack another time
JunkCrzr89
Competent Ignoramoose
I’ll play devil’s advocate here: I had similar symptoms at similar mileage. I replaced the bushings and inner and outer TREs, flushed the system, and added AT205. The bushings helped with steering slop, the flush + AT205 stopped the leak for a while, but ultimately slop remained inside the rack and the leak eventually came back. At your mileage, I suggest foregoing the band-aids and instead just replacing the rack.
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- #12
This is also where my thinking is. I’m supposed to go on a camping trip towing a small pop up camper in a month. About a 4 hour drive one way. Do I run the risk of a catastrophic failure with the bushing and slop in the steering rack? Or is this just an inconvenience and over steering issue? The rest of the front end is tight, new TRE, wheel bearings, upper and lower ball joints. There just slop on the highway and you can feel the rack over small bumps moving a bit.
hoser
SILVER Star
The inner TRE’s also develop play. They are easy to change but usually require an alignment job after. Aftermarket (555) is cheap. OE is very expensive.
The rack itself usually outlive the bushings and inner TRE’s 2 to 1.
The rack itself usually outlive the bushings and inner TRE’s 2 to 1.
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- #14
So then let me ask, should the whole steering rack move when you turn the wheel? Mine moves quite a bit, there’s about an inch each way of turning the steering wheel before there is any movement in the wheels themselves.
When you turn the steering wheel to move the wheels, the rack moves a good amount. I know this cause i was playing with the steering wheel while setting up a video on the rack. I didn’t have anyone around to help me with this but the video clearly shows a good movement in the whole rack when the wheels are moving
awesomeissquid
SILVER Star
The rack should not move when the wheel is moved. New bushings should solve that and can be reused with the new rack whenever that is done if you would like.
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- #16
So I was able to take a good look today at the rack with helper, it’s 100% a bushing problem, they are almost non existent and lots of movement of the rack. As far as leaks, I don’t see anything too bad. I believe there was fluid from changing the PS lines that was present for a few months, I don’t see anything new. However, these bushings seem next to impossible to locate anywhere either super pro or white line. Does anyone have an leads whatsoever on a set of these in stock or elsewhere?
Don’t drive far like that. I just did and caused big time damage. There was so much play I ended up having a CV come out. New spindle, bearings rotor, cv and prob more I am forgetting. I thought, ah just some play in the steering no big deal and drove on the highway for a while.
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- #19
Wow, thanks for the heads up. I have been driving normal with it and planned on taking it this weekend to a longer trip. Appreciate the info. Hoping to do these next week when the bushings come in.
