Symptoms of bad rack-and-pinion ?

[duke16]

What are the symptoms of a failing rack-and-pinion? Or, how can I tell if mine requires replacement?

 

[boominXplorer]

Leaking at either boot, steering shaft input or if any lateral movement in the shaft where the inner tie rod mounts.

 

[koda2000]

What are your symptoms? If it's the steering wheel shaking while turning after you turned the wheels with the engine off... I get another nickle.

 

[duke16]

Only symptom I have is excessive vibration up front. Besides the rack-and-pinion, everything else is relatively new up front, and looks fine. For now, unless I get more symptoms, I'll just assume it's bad tire wear.

 

[koda2000]

Did you, or someone else, turn the steering wheel, or front wheels, w/out having the engine running? If so, you've got air in the rack. This causes a shaking felt in the steering wheel (sometimes violent) when cornering. The solution is simple. Find yourself an empty parking lot and drive around slowly doing figure eights, turning the steering wheel from lock-to-lock to ex-spell the air. Do this 6-8 times. If this works, send me a nickel.

If this is not your problem, have the tires checked/balanced and rotated to see if that helps.

 

[duke16]

The vibration isn't related to steering, but I'll give that a shot. Thanks.