If anybody as been through the pain of removing and refitting the steering rack on a 05 plate Fiat Doblo 1.9JTD please can you offer me any tips on what to do or not what to do.
I was ready to sing the praises of my 05 JTD because I'm totally dependant on my Doblo doing a daily 60 mile work round trip. Well pleased with the 50mpg being achieved until this week when the old girl started making a creaking noise. No power steering fluid lose and no steering wonder. Steering seems to be working properly with no adverse pulling or judders. After clocking 1,000 miles this month, I did notice the nearside front tyre had scrubbed out on the outer edge so got the tracking adjusted, which apparently was along way out of true, to the extent that the tyre company told me go back next week for a recheck because it was so far out.
Thought this needed investigating further. From within the cabin, I check the steering column and following the steering rod down to where it connects to the steering rack. From within the car, under the clutch pedal I could feel fluid around the grommit that surrounds the steering rod. By no means excessive amounts of fluid lose because it's just enough to cover the finger tips rather than a flow saturating the carpet. What was worrying though is that I notice that when the steering was on full lock either way, I could physically see the steering rod pull the pinion shaft down a few millimeters. The same when on full lock the other way, the rod pushed the shaft up the same few millimeters. During the normal traverse there was no pinion shaft movement, only occurs on the full locks. All this with no fluid lose from the reservoir.
After having a a troll through the forum, I did find a post where a member had problems with the main rack moving to the extent that it twisted the main securing rack bolts. He had to replace the bolts and re-tighten which seem to cure his problem. I've been under mine to check the two main securing bolts and all seems tight and secure.
Initially, I'm going to try some Wynn's power steering leak seal stuff to see if that resolves the creaking and slight sepage problem. If it doesn't then I reckon it's going to be the rack out and refurb, hence the request for any tips.
As a side note, I did read that Fiat supplied refurbed racks are in the region of £500 or brand new replacements £800. That said, ePer seemed to suggest around the £260 + vat for a refurb. I also read that sometimes Fiat racks do cross reference with GM Vauxhall at a significant lower price tag. Relative local refurb companies seem to be about £150 + mark so I think that would be my choice.

The only comparison I can come up with was the Vectra rack...

PROPER A-hole :bang:

They suggest dropping the subframe, but the cheat I used was loosen the passenger side and drop the drivers side bolts (so you can undo the steering column U/J).

So far, my Doblo is working so haven't had to resort to major surgery yet

However, a weep is no reason to panic, wait for the flood :yuck:

Cheers Andoo, much appreciated.

It's the creaking noise that's rattling my cage. Trouble is because I know it's there I'm listening for it. The Wynn's sealing fluid hasn't had any affect on the noise.

On my 05 plate, the steering column rod UJ is inside the cabin so relatively easy to get at. The two main steering rack securing bolts go up through the sub-frame but the nuts on the top appear to be the bar-stewards to get at. Maybe that's be the reason why they suggest dropping the sub-frame.
Within a previous forum post that I found, the author stated that he had to replace the bolts and welded the nuts on. Seems a bit OTT to weld the nuts on, but maybe that is what is required.
Some online advice I found suggested that it might be worthwhile doing a power steering flush out. The suggested procedure was to undo the return fluid pipe, apparently the smaller one, place a container under the undone return pipe. Whilst keeping the reservoir topped up with new fluid, run the engine and turn the steering wheel until all the old fluid as been discharged
and new fluid is visible. Then re-attach the return pipe and fill up with new fluid. From there inspect the old discharged fluid and check for bits of minut bits of rubber. If found, that would suggest that the hoses are breaking down on the inside and the remedy would be to replace all the hoses

Perhaps, if somebody could be so kind and have a look at their steering column rod connections and confirm if there is any movement on the rack pinion shaft when on full lock. It might confirm that I've got a problem or hopefully not.

Hopefully the creaking was tracking related.
Took the car back to the tyre place for a recheck. Explained to the fitter that the steering wheel was way out of centre since last weeks initial tracking adjustment. He had a bit of a second thought look on his face and said he would have a look at it. It was up on the ramp for quite a while whilst they had a fettle.
The diagnoses was that the tracking was still out a bit and did need a re-adjustment. No charge, steering wheel sits bang on the centre now and NO CREAKING
Beginning to think that perhaps hitting a pot hole of something caused the tracking to go out quite badly. Then first attempt at adjustment was only done of the nearside wheel. Today I reckon they must have centered the steering and adjusted both side accordingly. Whatever they did, it as stopped the creaking. My thinking is that the steering rack pinion must have been under load strain due to the initial nearside only adjustment.
The other thing that goes through my mind is that the Doblo does have a very tight turning circle so I do wonder if hard down one way or the other and driving off could potentially have a detrimental effect on the tracking - food for thought.