Hi, My 04 LC100 has 176K, and I originally planned to change the steering rack in the next couple of weeks, because I felt my steering is a little heavy before. But after I finished my front suspension restore today ( new front wheel bearing, new LBJ, new UBJ, new OEM CV axle for both sides), I drove it for about 30 miles, the steering is much better, I don't know if it becomes normal but I bearly can tell the difference between my LC and my 12 Toyota Camry, I'd say I can live with it no problem.
Then the oil mark on both sides TRE boot becomes my only reason to change my rack, so I took a good look at them tonight again.
As the below pics shows, the oil seems not from the inside of the boot or the rack, it seems from the other place which at a higher location and drips to the boot. The reason I said this because we could see at the end of the boot, it actually pretty clean, all the oil marks gathered at the middle part of the boot and the start point from top to bottom. My LC comes with some constant power steering reservoir/hoses leaking until I tell it and fixed it a couple of months ago, so the passenger side boot oil marks very possibly come from that leaking. And this LC also comes with medium valve cover leaking untile I fixed this last month, so I can assume the driver side TRE boot oil mark comes from the valve cover leaking (most of the driver side under knees covered by oil mark which you could see from the pics).
So, if my rack is not leaking and the driving is ok, I will not have a strong reason to replace it.
Currently, the only thing I can tell about my steering system is both outer TRE and inner TRE is very loose, I tell this when I do the front suspension restore, and my steering wheel seems a little missing straight, I am planning for alignment after either a rack replacement or TREs replacement.
Based on these, do you think I should change the entire rack or only change the TREs? Or we could say it is better to change the rack at 176K for preventive purposes?
Thanks for any suggestion!
Then the oil mark on both sides TRE boot becomes my only reason to change my rack, so I took a good look at them tonight again.
As the below pics shows, the oil seems not from the inside of the boot or the rack, it seems from the other place which at a higher location and drips to the boot. The reason I said this because we could see at the end of the boot, it actually pretty clean, all the oil marks gathered at the middle part of the boot and the start point from top to bottom. My LC comes with some constant power steering reservoir/hoses leaking until I tell it and fixed it a couple of months ago, so the passenger side boot oil marks very possibly come from that leaking. And this LC also comes with medium valve cover leaking untile I fixed this last month, so I can assume the driver side TRE boot oil mark comes from the valve cover leaking (most of the driver side under knees covered by oil mark which you could see from the pics).
So, if my rack is not leaking and the driving is ok, I will not have a strong reason to replace it.
Currently, the only thing I can tell about my steering system is both outer TRE and inner TRE is very loose, I tell this when I do the front suspension restore, and my steering wheel seems a little missing straight, I am planning for alignment after either a rack replacement or TREs replacement.
Based on these, do you think I should change the entire rack or only change the TREs? Or we could say it is better to change the rack at 176K for preventive purposes?
Thanks for any suggestion!