Steering rack end failed and sheared off

[brookseye Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close brookseye]

heres a pic

[Guest Close Guest]

That is a true steering rack failure. thats an internal rack fault!! I would be talking to Toyota on it , might be lucky and get them to play. Maybe not.. You are going to need new rack ends, it would be wise to replace all of them..

[dhula1 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close dhula1]

Piggy, why would he need a new rack. It is the rack end that has failed and these are available as a separate item. So long as the rack itself (the bit that goes across the vehicle) is in good shape and the thread where the rack end screws into is fine I can't see anything but rack ends being needed.

IMO get both rack ends and both tie rod ends. You can pick up parts off ebay. for less than $300 from memory. 30 or so minutes work then about $60 for a wheel alignment

Piggy: Your right, what was I thinking! Doh!

[croozza Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close croozza]

Piggy, why would he need a new rack. It is the rack end that has failed and these are available as a separate item. So long as the rack itself (the bit that goes across the vehicle) is in good shape and the thread where the rack end screws into is fine I can't see anything but rack ends being needed.

IMO get both rack ends and both tie rod ends. You can pick up parts off ebay. for less than $300 from memory. 30 or so minutes work then about $60 for a wheel alignment

The thing with the ebay parts, is they are chinese copies, and very poor quality at that, the will break very soon after putting them in, better off going to a steering speciallist and get the parts from him.

[Whitey1 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Whitey1]

dhula1 - thats precisely the bit that snapped.. at the small end. thanks all for your replies. the moral of the story is, no matter who is at fault.. check your rack ends! because like me i have only had my vehicle 9 months and i dont know what the previous owner did with it and who worked on it to cause this to happen but i know the boot was split.. and i know that i am very very lucky that it finally gave way in my driveway and not on the freeway where i was ten minutes earlier!

If the boot was already split then it would have been letting in dirt and water etc and therefore prematurely wearing that joint or even rusting it up and siezing it. Usually you find joints will wait until you are turning sharply before they let go, not when your cruising down the freeway.