Thread: Rack and Pinion Help???

Ok so my rack and pinion took a huge dump on me last night. My steering wheel is now upside down and its quite scary to drive. I have a few questions...Is it in fact my rack? Do I have to replace it with a Magnasteer unit? What else do I need to replace it? Would anyone suggest me replacing it myself or leave it to a pro?

The steering rack isn't very hard to replace. But you need to be comfortable with lowering the sub frame to get to it.

If your car originally came with magnasteer, You need to put a magna steer rack in. They're pretty much the same price anyway.

I would suggest replacing the high pressure line, and the power steering pump while you were there.

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did you hit something or just all of a sudden the wheel skipped a few teeth and you can feel the steering box crunching.

i hit a huge crater of a pot hole and i cant feel it crunching but the wheels are turning out very wide

check your whole front end out, you could have just blown out the ball joint or tie rods, inner or outer and lost your alignment.

jack the side that you hit the hole with, and push the wheel form 9 to 3 o'clock, and see if you can feel it moving, and also 12 to 6 o'clock, for the ball joint. the lca's bushing also like to fail, while the cars on the jack look at the bushings to see if they are torn up. where the lca bolt to the sub frame.

how do you check the tie rods?

by pushing and pulling at the 3 and 9 o'colck or the tire, if it moves more than say a 1/8 of a inch you'll feel the slop.

also make sure your struts not bent. or the lca not bent as well if you really ate it when you hit the hole.

alright thanks. but my main focus is the position the steering wheel is when the wheels are straight

if the the tie rods are bad or bent or anything else is worn out the steering wheel will and can be way off from straight.

i went and jacked the car up wiggled both wheels both are fine. tie rods arent bent. so i assume its the rack

Are the 97-03 racks compatible with the 04+

look up the rack for your car, then cross reference the 97-03 part #. im thinking they are different.

How can you tell if a car has Magnasteer? I'm getting ready to replace my rack, and I don't want to tear my DD apart and find I have the wrong part.

you need to look at the area where the steering column meets the rack, from that area you will see 2 wires lead up to the engine, those wires from the rack mean you have magnasteer.

Open your trunk and look for the RPO code NV7

this rack is serious a PITA i havent even gotten it out yet took all day to get the little i got done. anyone have any tips?

rack is fun

put car on jack stands, remove both wheels

pop both tie rods off. and the sway bar end links.

on the driver side you have the the steering box area where the steering column connects to the rack, its a 11 mm bolt, you need about 12 inches worth of extensions to get to it. lift the boot up and you will see it.

next you want to put a jack under the back part of the sub frame, loosen the 2 frame bolts about 2 inches, then lower the jack slowly till your almost at the bolts, don't let it hang on the bolts. let the jack hold it.

now remove the sway bar bushing bolts on both sides, you can remove the bar or slide it up out of the way.

there are 2 power steering pump lines that bolt into the rack on the driver side/side of the steering box part. 2, 18 mm nuts. remove them. you can get to them from under the driver side of the car. have a small pail or something to catch the small amount of fluid that will come out of the lines and rack when you take these lines off.

you now have the 2 nuts and bolts that hold the rack to the sub frame to get out.

and now is the fun part, you want to take it out the driver side wheel well, twisting action helps some, i think it was clock wise.

with your wheels straight the bolt for the steering gear is facing the driver side, so just lock you steering wheel and leave it locked, if you turn it round and round you WILL break the clock spring in the steering wheel.

match up the steering gear on the new rack to the one you took out as best as you can, that way when you try to get the steering shaft back on the rack it will be close to where it was when you locked the wheel. best to have a friend twist the wheel a bit side to side as you try to get it back on the new rack, this can be about the hardest part for some people. i had no problem at all, matched the new one up and it slid on the rack.


the thing that makes this job suck is, it's just working in tight places. it took me about 4 hours to do start to finish, like tools cleaned and put away type done.

im sure i could do it faster should a second time happen.

you were able to get the lines out with the rack? first i've heard of that.

the 2 line bolts were not even a problem to get off or on.

the write up i followed said to remove the air box and the master cylinder, to get the lines from up top, but after looking at it i could see the lines were easily accessible from underneath the car.

thanks for all the help scottydoggs. This was the most difficult thing ive ever done on a car. But heres a pic of the old one


it cracked open