steering rack help

robwebsters · Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:45 am

Hi I have a few knocking noises coming from the steering area and after a bit of looking into it i am guessing its the steering rack

Could anyone suggest a good place to go where I am not going to get spanked on the price ?.

SkipperMac · Tue Jul 14, 2009 9:02 am

robwebsters wrote:Hi I have a few knocking noises coming from the steering area and after a bit of looking into it i am guessing its the steering rack
Could anyone suggest a good place to go where I am not going to get spanked on the price ?.

Speak to Tony Pearman here on the forum. He's yer man!

robwebsters · Tue Jul 14, 2009 4:43 pm

What member name is tony under ? or how can i contact him ?

Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:10 pm

Rob - it's pearman00 and you can PM him by clicking this .

There have been a few posts in the members forums about steering racks - but I'm sure if one of those in the know (as well as Tony) pops along they'll give you some help & advice. There was talk of someone thinking it was the rack but it ended up being a much cheaper job - sorry I can't be of any technical help but hope you get sorted without too much wallet damage.

SimonE · Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:47 pm

2006 Exige - rack problems - I wouldn't expect that - have you got excessive play?

robwebsters · Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:54 pm

Yeh seems to be a knock i can feel it through the steering wheel its not really bad but reckon its going to get slowly worse ? she has 30k on the clock and driven fairly hard so reckon it could be rack ?

SkipperMac · Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:11 pm

robwebsters wrote:Yeh seems to be a knock i can feel it through the steering wheel its not really bad but reckon its going to get slowly worse ? she has 30k on the clock and driven fairly hard so reckon it could be rack ?

Just be careful to diagnose the problem carefully. I've had 'slight wear in the steering rack' diagnosed on my last 2 garage visits, so was convinced that was the cause of the rattling through the steering wheel which seemed to be getting worse (braking hard on 'wash-board' surfaces was becoming a lottery

) - then I replaced all 4 suspension units and ALL the rattles from both suspension and what I thought was steering rack wear have GONE! Now she points and goes as if she was fresh out of the factory ... and my Elise is 11 years old with 73000 miles!

Someone else on the forum replaced their rack at significant cost, only to find that the play in the steering was coming from a worn universal joint at the top of the steering column.
In other words: don't jump to conclusions too quickly. I ALMOST replaced my rack which would have been totally unneccessary.