Technical Steering rack inner joint

[philipb82]

Hello


My Stilo passed it's MOT today with a couple of advisories, one of them was play in steering rack inner joint. I just wondered what this is and what is the rough cost of the part? Also what are the symptoms of this when it gets worse or fails as at the moment everything in the steering department seems fine.

Thanks


Phil

 

[Clivvy]

not sure with these, but on my 4x4 for example the steering "rack" as it were is in fact a pump connected to a long rod that runs between both wheels - that rod has links either end which wear over time.


Similar concept to the stilo, so essentially there will be links somewhere on the rack that are wearing.


Symptoms will be vibration/wobble/noise but probably hardly noticeable until its really bad.


Might be a good idea to ask someone else to check it and get a second opinion.

 

[maggers]

The inner joints attatch to the track rod ends and sit under the rack gaitors. They are basically a form of ball joint and are spring loaded internally so can tend to have a little play. Jack the car up, grab the wheel at 1/4 to 3 position and rock it side to side and you should feel any play. If it was excessive it would have failed and I suspect it will be the same next year.

 

[davec000]

The steering rack inner joint is part of the track rod. Try euro car parts a track rod will only be about 20 quid. Fitting is a diy job or if your not confident will cost an hours labour at a garage.

 

[richydraper]

VOSA recently changed their ruling on checking ball joints. apparently they should now be checked with the vehicle in its driving position... i.e. not raised in the air (sorry maggers ) the fact that hes put it down as an advisory really wouldnt worry me in the slightest unless you have wandering steering or vagueness. get wifey/girlfriend (but dont let them meet each other) to shake the steering smoothly from left to right only about from 10o'clock to 2o'clock positions.

iirc you have a 1.6 so if you look down the back of the engine youll see a piece of equipment that looks like the item labelled (1) in the picture below.

coincidentally almost exactly where the marker for number (1) is, is almost the exact location of the inner ball joint, inside the ribbed gaitor.



now this will make more sense when your actually looking at it but your looking for a smooth transition in directional change when rocking the steering and looking at the relationship between the rack (silver bit) and the track rod (the thinner rod going out to each wheel) if it seems to 'clunk' or 'jump' then you have issues... you can also hold the track rod lightly and you would be able to feel if its 'clunky'... if its smooth then probably all is well.

if your unsure and have a half decent video recording on your phone video the movement and post it up and ill give you my professional opinion bear in mind that MOT testers have to have x amount of fails compared to x amount of passes... they also tend to advise defects that aren't really all that major. when its all recorded by VOSA it looks a little bit more legit if they are failing a certain percentage and picking up defects on a certain percentage of vehicles. now thats not to say that theyre telling lies or fiddling the books but they may note things that are negligible. at the end of the day each tester will deem a certain defect in a different way. what one tester may deem as unsafe another may not and if its a specialist they may put it down to a certain marques characteristics and deem it not a defect at all.