Steering rack clunking noise.

[KamiWolf93]

Hi, I’ve been having this problem for a while now. The car wanders on the road at practically all speeds, have had new tie/track rods and ends. I rocked the wheel at 6 and 12 position and had no play, but at 3 and 9 there is. There’s a banging noise that happens when I do this. It also happens when I rock the wheel left to right inside the car. The steering rack doesn’t respond in this deadzone. Any ideas? I’ve added a little bit of preload in the past and this improved things. But couldn’t add any more because the steering became too stiff. It looks like the noise may be coming from the rack but I’m not 100% sure on this. Thanks, Adam

[Schrodinger’s Box]

DO NOT DRIVE THE CAR – Whatever it is – it is dangerous!!!!. It’s most likely in the rack, but, it’s possible that someone has hit something and broken the rack loose from the anchor bolts/ locating loops. If this is the case the whole rack could slide left or right in answer to oposing force from the steering. Either way it could be really exciting. Whatever the problem is DO NOT DRIVE THE CAR untill it’s fixed.

[KamiWolf93]

I will check the anchor bolts to the rack tomorrow morning, would be great if that’s all it is. It partly sounds like it’s coming from the strut top mount, the strut was shot on the particular side I tested from, had 1 wheel up off the ground and one on the ground. Found it strange it was harder to make it clunk once preload was increased. Installed a new UJ months back thinking that was the source of the noise. Its been this way for months but now it’s getting concerning. Could get out the mechanics stethescope and listen I guess?

[Fabian]

I would start at the beginning somehow you did not aligned the rack and steering wheel correctly when you put it back on look at it closely and then look at it again its very easy to be a couple of degrees to a whole 180 degrees off
it should be done as a two-man operation just to make sure nothing gets moved during alignment check the rack part number against the VIN number of the vehicle there may have been a change mid-production and the parts guy gave you the wrong one.
They know somtines they’re going to have to recall the vehicle back while it’s in production they just assess the cost and it’s cheaper just recall or send out a TSB later than to stop production let’s say from May on it comes with a different improved rack everything before that got the old rack, the one that they knew was going to give problems .
a recall you would maybe hear about but only if enough people complain that they are forced to do a recall and tell those affected but tsb’s are there littel secrects they tell only there techs about at the dealerdhip level..
.hope it helps

[Fabian]

You didn’t mention if the part is OEM or aftermarket
they are making the vehicles so that you have to get a original dealership part .aftermarket will just not work sometimes ..
I mean they designed the engine around the spark plug yes the spark plug comes first wait that’s wrong they designe the warranty first
And then design everything to fail just after the warranty is over..
I’ve seen them have recalls because lets say the spark plugs were failing before the warranty was over they would
recall all the vehicles to add a spark plug that would last till just after the warranty has expired..

[Author]

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