Steering rack leak. Replacement recommendations

[birch hill]

I was wondering how common it was for steering rack to start leaking after a mild lift. I just put on the ome torsion bars and adjusted them for about an 1” of lift with the hope this would be easy on the cv joints. As soon as I did this the passenger side boot of steering rack has been dripping power steering fluid, which drips of the end of tie rod end on to the tire and gets slung everywhere. It’s not leaking much, but a little bit goes along way.
Does this warrant replacing steering rack? It only has 95k miles on it. It looks like a pain of a job. Best place to buy a rack?
Thanks!

 

[PADDO]

It’s not unexpected to get a very small amount of fluid collecting in the boot over the years and with the slight change in geometry up front the boot/rod/clamp is possibly no longer oil tight and it’s now dripping. Wriggle the clamp off and let it dribble out, clean out any residual and monitor. Hopefully it’s a non issue. Obviously if it’s fresh atf running out then you’ve got something to address. Check your CVs for slung grease too. Some will experience a leak after a lift, mine did, and others won’t.

 

[birch hill]

Thanks, that’s good to hear. The level did not seem to go down in reservoir, so maybe it was just from the accumulation of fluid in boot like you said. I will clean it out and see what happens. I did get a bit of grease from one cv, I re clamped it and it stopped.

 

[birch hill]

I was reading about it a bit more, so there probably is a slow leak in end seals for it to get into the boot. I checked the other side and a bunch of fluid came out when I unclamped the driver side. Where is a good source for steering racks? My Lexus dealer want $1600plus for a new one.

 

[DMD08]

I contacted CVJ here in Denver about a rebuilt rack. They quoted me $358 plus $200 core.

 

[birch hill]

I wonder how well a re manufacturer holds up.? Nice savings over new.

 

[outdoor7or24]

I wanted to say I contacted CVJ and they told me they could not rebuild a VGRS rack...

 

[Dwight S]

Try AT-205 Re-Seal. I had a pretty good leak and I poured a couple ounces in and topped off the power steering reservoir and the leak stopped very quickly.

 

[saucebox]

Try AT-205 Re-Seal. I had a pretty good leak and I poured a couple ounces in and topped off the power steering reservoir and the leak stopped very quickly.

Seconded. This seems to be the thing most recommended here to slow a small leak. You'll see in searches that reman racks don't seem to hold up nearly as long as the OEM ones.

I ended up with this one: BuyAutoParts Rack and Pinion with Power Steering 80-01255AN - Buy Auto Parts. I expect it will fail long before an OEM rack would. 6 months so far, fingers crossed. The labor for swapping racks out is INTENSE.

 

[janz3n]

I have a leak as well. Hard to tell where exactly it's coming from but it looks to be this spot. There's a rubber piece that I could move with my finger. It could also somewhere else but its not on the boots.

Is this a common failure point? Is it a possible repair or do I need an entire new rack?

 

[janz3n]

Alright, did some more reading. Looks to be input shaft seal and rack has to come out to fix it. That right?

 

[l3n0x]

I've heard that rebuild doesn't last really long & can only be rebuilt satisfactory once. The Toyota rack is super expensive, and if your truck will be scrap in 4-5 years anyway it's not a logical option to choose. You can pull those years from an aftermarket one, and even if that fails, you can buy like 3-4 aftermarket racks for the price of an OEM one. So unless you're planning another 10-15 years, I'd go aftermarket in this case.

 

[planomateo]

I've heard that rebuild doesn't last really long & can only be rebuilt satisfactory once. The Toyota rack is super expensive, and if your truck will be scrap in 4-5 years anyway it's not a logical option to choose. You can pull those years from an aftermarket one, and even if that fails, you can buy like 3-4 aftermarket racks for the price of an OEM one. So unless you're planning another 10-15 years, I'd go aftermarket in this case.

This is bad advice. You're talking $400 vs $800. The amount of effort it takes to replace the rack justifies doing this with a quality part.

 

[l3n0x]

This is bad advice. You're talking $400 vs $800. The amount of effort it takes to replace the rack justifies doing this with a quality part.

Then you guys are lucky, cause a toyota rack is $1600 in europe

 

[janz3n]

I think it will be that much in Canada too.. going to slam some of that AT-205 in and see what happens.

 

[medtro]

I ended up with this one: BuyAutoParts Rack and Pinion with Power Steering 80-01255AN - Buy Auto Parts. I expect it will fail long before an OEM rack would. 6 months so far, fingers crossed. The labor for swapping racks out is INTENSE.

I know you are not running this now. How long did you have it? Any problem with it? Does it feel like quality part? It is hard to beat $146.87 for a brand new steering rack. Would you buy again if you have another IFS 100?

 

[saucebox]

I know you are not running this now. How long did you have it? Any problem with it? Does it feel like quality part? It is hard to beat $146.87 for a brand new steering rack. Would you buy again if you have another IFS 100?

It looks and feels like any of the remans. I myself would not do it again...it was EOL (again) by the time I cut everything off. It might be fine if you're smart enough to leave everything alone, and just drive a stock Land Cruiser? My general thought is that the labor is unpleasant enough that I'd do OEM if I had another IFS ride. Once every twenty years sure beats every other year.

 

[SWCruiser]

Spend the money sand do it right. Getting down there to redo another rack will have you kicking yourself for being cheap.

 

[2001LC]

I was wondering how common it was for steering rack to start leaking after a mild lift. I just put on the ome torsion bars and adjusted them for about an 1” of lift with the hope this would be easy on the cv joints. As soon as I did this the passenger side boot of steering rack has been dripping power steering fluid, which drips of the end of tie rod end on to the tire and gets slung everywhere. It’s not leaking much, but a little bit goes along way.
Does this warrant replacing steering rack? It only has 95k miles on it. It looks like a pain of a job. Best place to buy a rack?
Thanks!

So what did you end up replacing the rack? With which rack, if that's rout you took?