Hi Everyone,
I am in the process of tracking down some looseness/noises in the front suspension, and I am reading that the bolts for the steering rack may need to be retightened. Some people have said that the engine needs to be dropped to access, some say you can get to the bolts while the engine is in.
Does someone know the process/location to be able to check the bolts for the steering rack?
Spencer
I had my two driver side bolts loosen off last year.
Raise the front wheels off the ground and grab a hold of each tire at the 3 and 9 o’clock positions and pull/push back and forth (similar process as you would use when looking for a bad wheel bearing). While doing this, look over the top of the tire at the end of the steering rack. In my case, you could see the end of the rack twitch as you loaded up the tire.
I opted for replacing all three bolts (two on driver side, one on passenger)
Replacing or tightening the bolts is quite doable with the engine in place. Two are accessed in the plenum chamber from above. One of them is under the brake booster and the other is below the pump/valve unit (circled in red below). I removed the air intake unit for better access.
The third bolt is accessed from underneath. Access is somewhat restricted. I chose to go in through the driver side wheel well with a long reach air ratchet.
Thank you very much for the detailed reply! I will take a look at this soon and report back on if this was the issue for my car as well.
Spencer
Good to know this is possible. When I thought I had to replace my rack some years ago, most of the people I went to at first were saying they had to drop the motor to reach the third bolt.
Just because you can get the bolts out without touching the engine in NO way means you can get the rack out with the engine in place
Ah okay. I thought that’s what was being implied. Now it makes more sense. Thanks.
Sorry to resurrect this but, is there any advice as to what I am looking for when going through the wheel well? I can’t see anything that would resemble a bolt.
A borescope with a side view camera is the easiest way to actually view the head of the bolt as it is tucked in next to the rack hard line connections.
I had to disconnect the hard lines and move them to the side in order to get the head of the air ratchet in there to re/re the bolt
Thank you, that makes more sense. I was just shoving a ratchet in there and praying it found something. Did you remove the power steering fluid before removing the lines?
I suctioned the reservoir and then just let whatever was in the lines drain out.
