New Rack and Pinion?

[WspoonSS]

The other night after leaving work I noticed that my steering wheel was extremely loose, and there was a slight clunk when turning the wheel. I automatically assumed tie rods were bad. I jacked the car up and noticed that both inner tie rod boots had oil residue on them, but there didn’t seem to be any play. I checked my power steering reservoir and realized that there was no fluid. I then topped that off and the steering is still a bit off. You guys think it’s time for a rack and pinion? Car is a 2010 2SS with 101k. Any help is appreciated

[WspoonSS]

Bump. Anyone???

[davidscamaro]

Yes , once your rack gets a seal leak you need to replace it

[WspoonSS]

I have a pretty decent mechanical background. Is there anything important that needs to be done before installing the new one? Does it need to be bled at all?

[Pearlj10]

You absolutely have to replace the rack mounting bolts when doing this job. They are TTY and will come loose if you reuse old ones. Replacement of those bolts shouldn’t be open for discussion like the rear suspension TTY bolts are. You will have to bleed it, preferably with wheels raised to lessen impact on new unit. The job isn’t that difficult but you might want to check how rusted the steering shaft retaining bolt is (the bolt that clamps shaft to new r&p). One of the repair manuals will come in handy.

[davidscamaro]

You need to lock the steering wheel , can break the clock spring. Bleed the rack by turing left to right with thr front off the ground

[davidscamaro]

Good trick for locking the steering wheel in place is run the seat belt though it and click it in to the buckle

[Neoclasiccl]

I replaced mine last year Since it was loose and shook at high speed when breaking. It also made noise while turning. Pretty easy swap used new bolts and the replacement rack was set almost perfect and barely needed a tweak when I had it aligned.m

After it’s installed to fill it just keep turning wheel all the way to each side and the level in reservoir will go down until all air is out of system.

[WspoonSS]

Awesome! Thanks for the help everyone. I’ll be installing the new rack and pinion on Tuesday morning. Tomorrow I’ll be installing BMR trailing arms, BMR toe links, BMR radius rod inserts, and new front forward lower control arms tomorrow.