Owner reviews for steering rack

If you ever ask the question which is better...ZF all the way. Bar FAR the best and most reliable.

btw...yours is a trw rack its easy...took me an hour, bent mine. Disconnect knuckle....crawl under there after removing rubber boot. The nut on the tie rod where it connectes to the steering rack is a 33mm nut. be very careful so you don't bend the rack but just loosen that up and take off....do reverse to put the new in and adjust to bentley specs. Don't forget the loc-tite on the threads though! I didn't need any special tools...just the box wrench from Sears. Works like a champ....doesn't pull and didn't need an alignment

I replaced the rack in my car. the newer rack, Trw I belive has a quicker ratio than the factory unit. On the inside of the steering wheel it says you should be able to turn the wheel 6? full turns from left to right. The new rack requires only 4 or 5.

The steering rack is another 100k +/- replacement item. Aftermarket/reman units are notorious crapshoots, prone to leaking, and Volvo prices are spendy.

There's a couple reasons I've found by taking one apart that failed within a year. I've never been happy with the steering response from a re-man. I found the center wear between the rack and pinion gears to be almost laughable. There was an eighth of an inch of slop between the teeth. That's why I could move the steering wheel from side to side while going straight and nothing would happen. The biggest problem I found was the abundance of rust pitting on the cylinder walls. Obviously hydraulic fluid is hydroscopic and moisture getting in causes that. Brand new seals won't help if the mating surface is pitted. I think it's just the luck of the draw. You might get one that's in good shape internally and never have a problem. Then again, you might get one that was sitting for ten years full of water before it was rebuilt.

So, I'm on my second brand new Meyle steering rack in as many years. Is there any other company (that DOESN'T make them in ****ing China) that makes new manual steering racks? I wasted $123 on this one from Autohaus AZ and Meyle I have to keep spending my hard-earned money on alignments every time i get a new one.

As much as I dislike the quality of the current Meyle racks, I don't think the rack could not be the cause of that because I compared an original rack rod to a new Meyle one and they are the same length.

The verdict on the old rack is in now that I have it off the car and in the vice. It is no good. When I turn the pinion shaft, the feel is very rough and unlubricated-like. Adjusting the pinion torque makes no difference; even with a very light pre-load, the roughness is still there.