How to Fix Play in Steering Rack? Locating and Solving the Issue

Steering racks are pretty durable and don't get on your nerves until the car gets pretty a lot of miles on it. In different vehicles, steering racks have various estimated longevity but sometimes they may even outlive an engine or transmission. So, many drivers don't even know there may be problems with a steering rack.

But sometimes, when you drive a car on bad roads, or you are just not really careful when you are driving, the steering rack may start knocking or having free play and this means it needs some attention. You may be surprised when you know how much it costs to repair a steering rack on a car!

In short, fixing free play in a steering rack is not easy - you will need to have the rack diagnosed properly and decide whether it can be repaired or should be replaced with a new one. In this article, I'm going to give you some tips to let you spend less time and money on this process.

Let's get started!

How to understand your steering rack has free play?

First, you need to identify that the problem is exactly in the steering rack. It's not that easy to do and you will need professional help, in most cases. If I were you, I would just go to the dealership or to a trusted repair shop and asked them for a proper diagnosis of my suspension without telling them I suspect the steering rack.

If you still want to do everything by yourself, here are some important steps you should go through:

• Don't turn on the engine and lightly turn the steering wheel to both sides - do you feel any knocks in the ends of free play of the wheel? If not, this is unlikely the steering rack.
• Identify the place where you hear the knocks. Are they coming from the inside or from the outside of the car's interior? Inside the car, you have several parts in the steering column that can create these knocks.
• Find a place where you can check the steering rack - a garage or a shop with a car lift.
• Use your hands to shake different parts of the steering rack - its body, steering rods, rod ends - everything that you can reach with your hands.
• While holding your hand on the body of the steering rack, ask someone to shake the steering wheel a little and try to feel if the knocks are coming exactly from the rack.

These simple and free methods will help you identify whether the problem is exactly with the steering rack. I know literally hundreds of cases when people went to repair shops and wanted to repair the steering rack but the issue was hidden in a faulty steering column shaft or some easy-to-fix suspension problem. In this case, you better get to a good mechanic who will not take money from you for steering rack repair while the problem costs ten times less to solve.

What are the reasons for free play in the steering rack?

If you already made sure that the steering rack is the culprit for your problems, you should know that driving with a knocking rack is not the best option. After some time, this knocking will go worse and the rack will literally stop doing its job. Steering will become complicated and the handling of your vehicle on the road will not make you happy.

But what can cause the steering rack knocking and free play? Here are some of the possible culprits:

• Aggressive driving. You may not even notice how sharply you turn the steering wheel when driving aggressively, but the rack will not say thank you for that.
• Driving on bad roads. In areas where the quality of roads is usually bad, drivers quite often need to invest money in new steering racks or in the repair of these units.
• Low-quality steering rack. If you already replaced the steering rack a couple of years ago and now it has play again, you most likely bought a low-quality part.
• Ignored problems with the suspension. Your suspension and steering system are connected. The steering rods and rod ends may fail because of issues with other suspension parts. And this, in turn, will cause some steering rack problems.

Readers sometimes ask me if they can avoid steering rack problems in high-mileage cars. Just look at the most common reasons for the problems with steering racks and try to avoid aggressive driving, bad roads, poor repairs, and also ignoring minor issues with your vehicle. If you don't do these, you will most likely have little to no problems with the steering rack in your vehicle.

But sometimes, these problems are just inevitable. There are some car models that are known for short-lasting steering racks. For example, the Ford Fiesta or Ford Focus are the leaders on this list and you will have to repair their racks after the car hits about 100,000 miles.

How can you fix a steering rack if it has some play?

There are different kinds of play and you will need to identify the actual reason for the play. In most dealerships, mechanics will offer steering rack replacement. But this is not the cheap part and replacing it is not something you want to pay for. So, there are several situations when you can repair the rack.

First of all, repair is possible when one of the outer parts is malfunctioning. For example. it may seem that the rack is knocking when there is a problem with one of the rods or rod ends.

Also, each steering rack has bushings that ensure the mechanism moves to the sides without any problems. If these bushings are worn out, the steering rack will have play. Replacing them is not really easy but possible and it will cost you much cheaper than the rack replacement.

Steering rack mounting may go bad and the rack may just hit the car body when in action. In this case, the repair will not be really easy but it's still cheaper than replacement.

But if the problem is with the steering rack shaft or one of the body parts, there is no hope to restore the old rack. In these cases, you need to find the best option and replace the shaft. Unfortunately, it will cost a lot just because the labor is not cheap and the part is not going to cost you little money.

Also, please, remember that tightening the setting bolt in the steering rack will not fix it for more than 100-200 miles. This is not the proper solution for this problem.

What are your options for the steering rack replacement?

If you eventually decided to replace the steering rack, you have several options. First of all, you can keep driving for some time if the play is not that fatal. If it doesn't disturb your steering and you don't feel knocking when you navigate on the roads of your city, that's just fine and you may still drive the car.

If your rack badly needs replacement, you have several options:

• new OEM rack will be the best solution but the price of this rack may be well over $2K for newer cars;
• you can get an aftermarket steering rack made in Taiwan or China but the quality of these racks is not as good as it may seem at first;
• also, you may try to find the used rack from scrapyards - keep in mind that most of them are taken from high-mileage cars, so they are not always in good condition;
• also, you may take the steering rack off your car and give it to mechanics who are specialized in restoring the racks.

The final option seems like a good alternative for low-cost repair. It won't cost you just a little but this is the cheapest option. Yes, sometimes you can get a Chinese aftermarket rack for just $300 or something like that, but these racks will not last at all. In half a year, you will have the same problem of knocking and free play.

I would try the last way - restoring the old rack. If it's not possible, the best thing you can do is to install the new OEM rack even though it will cost you a fortune really.

Can you prevent your steering rack from failing?

There are almost no procedures that you can follow to maintain the steering rack. So, there is nothing you can do but follow the recommendations on how to not kill the steering rack when driving on the roads.

The mechanism of the steering rack is pretty tender and it hates when you go over potholes, especially at high speed causing huge stress for the suspension and also all connected elements of your vehicle.

If you want to get as many miles from your vehicle as possible, the steering rack is one of the key units you should remember about. It's very often neglected but the repair of the steering rack often costs just like the repair of the engine head or the transmission. So, this part influences the longevity of the vehicle and brings in the change.

Take care of your steering rack and never ignore the symptoms it shows. Sometimes, you can solve the problem when it only started to show up for much less money than in a month or two.