[Rho]

So I'm not going to lie. I was doing doughnuts in a wet parking lot the other night and when I was done I noticed a humming noise that occurred when I turned the wheel (with a slight vibration in the steering wheel). I thought this humming was due to a starving power steering pump. However, I took it into the dealer and to my surprise (and theirs) the steering rack was shot. Now I have never heard of this happening in the R cars and this dealer (a very old and respectable dealer) hadn't either. They had seen this in the XC90 but not in any Rs. An 1800 dollar repair covered under warranty. Now I know some of you have done doughnuts with no problems so is it just me or is something screwy?
Wont be doing doughnuts anytime soon thats for sure...

 

[lan]

Re: Broken Steering Rack!!! (Rho)

I too had a great time in the snow last night! No problems to report though. Sorry to hear about your rack.

 

[AthruC]

Re: Broken Steering Rack!!! (lan)

...that's how I lost my rack. Metal shavings in the PS system got me a new rack, PS pump, and and pressure hose.

It wasn't even more than 2 full rotations, rather on the slow side might I add (more like drifting), AND freshly topped off PS fluid.

In all reality, I did have to top off about once a year, but that should be no cause to kill a rack.

I recently started a poll asking who had their rack replaced. To my surprise, not many, as the majority of "R" owners who I personally know have had their racks replaced.

 

[JRL]

Re: Broken Steering Rack!!! (Rho)

Plenty of bad R racks.
My 04 had a bad rack at 8K miles

 

[Rho]

Re: Broken Steering Rack!!! (AthruC)

Yeah I'm assuming metal shavings had something to do with the death of mine too. There was no where near enough strain on the rack to just kill it. It must have been an inevitable thing but doing doughnuts didn't help. I really just did like two rotations of AWD drifting (mostly just loads of understeering in a circle...

)

 

[AthruC]

Re: Broken Steering Rack!!! (Rho)

That kinda worries me... I had almost the exact same scenario with the same result.

 

[Rho]

Re: Broken Steering Rack!!! (AthruC)

Hmm this is interesting. I'm at just over 20k in my 07. So that is rather troublesome. Can a lot of these failures be because they are just bad from the factory?

 

[PhilUp]

Re: Broken Steering Rack!!! (JRL)

Quote, originally posted by JRL »

Plenty of bad R racks. My 04 had a bad rack at 8K miles

I've gone through 2 already. A lot of weak components in this "pure racing car".

 

[AthruC]

Re: Broken Steering Rack!!! (PhilUp)

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I can steer the wheel in either direction by breathing heavily???

If that were the case though, Cadillacs would never have left the dealer's lots.

2007 w/ about 20K as well http://********************/smile/emthdown.gif

 

[Johnr352]

Re: Broken Steering Rack!!! (AthruC)

Aside from the humming (which I don't have) how can you tell when it is, or about to, going bad? I notice that, at full lock (anwith the wheel rubbing) I get a vibration through the steering wheel that goes away as soon as i back off of full lock. Is this the beginning of a failure...

 

[specialk1223]

Re: Broken Steering Rack!!! (Johnr352)

yikes...I had this exact same issue when making hard left hand turns (just driving and not doing donuts) and they just kept filling the car with power steering fluid...

now the car is out of warranty!!!!

 

[mpdbrown]

Re: Broken Steering Rack!!! (specialk1223)

bought the wrong car guys...

 

[JRL]

Re: Broken Steering Rack!!! (Johnr352)

Quote, originally posted by Johnr352 »

Aside from the humming (which I don't have) how can you tell when it is, or about to, going bad?

They "clunk" at low speeds or standing still and turning the wheel back and forth.
If you start off, make a 90 degree turn and it clunks, good chance it's the rack going bad.
If it can't be torqued at this point, it's the rack

 

[GiRaff3]

Re: Broken Steering Rack!!! (JRL)

Hmm...I was messing around in an empty parking lot before and immediately after the PS was whiny and a little less responsive. It went away after about 4 minutes though and everything has been normal. Next time I take the caR in though I will have the PS check closely to make sure something isn't broken.

I plan on tracking this summer so a bad PS rack will not cut it.

 

[GLee]

Re: Broken Steering Rack!!! (Rho)

I noticed a clunk when the car was cold and I had cranked all the way to one side. Did not think much of it. Took it in on my last day of warranty, and the Rack was toast. Have had a XC 90 for the last 4 days since my new rack was stuck in the SouthEastern Snowstorm. NICE SUV, but miss my R.

http://********************/smile/emthup.gif

 

[djkronik57]

Re: Broken Steering Rack!!! (GLee)

Great...mine has recently started making a clunking noise on slow right hand turns when it's warmer out (i.e. not below freezing). Kind of like a pop/clunk at about 75-80% to lock. I've also had issues with my power steering reservoir leaking, which I know is a known issue on 2004s. Guess I should take it in before my warranty runs out.

 

[Rho]

Re: Broken Steering Rack!!! (djkronik57)

So I got the car back today with a new rack in it. At first when driving it there was no problem, but the humming noise/vibration has slowly started again over about 20 miles. It leads me to believe that my problem is the same as AthruC's with the metal shavings. I will call the dealer tomorrow and see if they have any insight on the situation and see if they flushed the steering fluid. Hopefully metal shavings don't work there way back to the steering rack to haunt me another day...

 

[Rho]

Sent the car in again today. The dealer says the pump is shot too. Sounds like another case of the metal fragments. Hopefully replacing the pump will be the end of this.

 

[JoeLvo]

Re: (Rho)

Quote, originally posted by Rho »

Sent the car in again today. The dealer says the pump is shot too. Sounds like another case of the metal fragments. Hopefully replacing the pump will be the end of this.

Now, take your time to research my next statement, but...:

I have heard reports that once the rack on the S60 starts to go (or make noise), it's all downhill from there. You should research this, and make sure that the dealer didn't, in effect, ruin the new rack by not purging the system of any contaminents before installing it.

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised, if the dealer has basically stuck you with another bad rack (now, because of the metal filings damaging the new one), because they didn't do the procedure completely (removal of contaminents).

 

[Rho]

Thats exactly what I was thinking. The dealer did do a fluid flush, however considering that there is still a steering noise it is unlikely like all of the metal shavings have been completely removed.

To hijack my own thread, speaking of Volvo's extremely loose steering, is there any way of making the steering heavier or have more feedback? Even replacing the steering pump with a different one or something like that? Just out of curiosity...