alexb76

Hi all,

My shop while changing oil, foundout my steering rack is leaking, and has been for sometime... has anyone else dealt with this issue?

What are the typical costs to replace it? He said he needs to find a rebuild unit, is that reliable? how much is a brand new one?

Thanks

GPM_97

Had the steering rack replaced on my 997 with a new unit last month at my local Porsche dealer. Have an extended warranty that covered the work but without that I think the cost at the dealer with an alignment would have been $4k or more. I would think a rebuilt rack from a known source and installed by an Independent shop would work well and be considerably cheaper. Hope that helps.

groovzilla

New steering racks are about $1400
You can buy a remanufactured/rebuilt one for $450 or so which is probably the route I would go:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/23514282134...Condition=2500


I'm guessing labor is about 4-5 hours? So factor in another $600-$700 at Indy Porsche shop.

alexb76

I haven't done this repair yet, what are the signs of issues to look for? and is it dangerous driving the car with leaking steering rack?

groovzilla

As long as you don't have to steer, a leaking steering rack is just fine

MrMoose

Let's not be overly dramatic: you're not going to lose steering. Racks typically start leaking from the outer shaft seal, and the biggest issue is that it can make a heck of a mess, or that you let the fluid level get low enough that it damages the pump. Even if the power assist completely goes (pretty unlikely) you can still steer the car fine at speed, though it'll be a bear at parking lot speeds on a 997 I'm sure.

Anyway, I'm not usually an advocate of mechanic-in-a-bottle fixes, but I've actually gotten good results with Lucas Power Steering Stop Leak. I had a car with a fairly rare ZF rack that started leaking (and occasionally spraying...it was pretty bad) from one of the shaft seals. Sourcing a replacement rack was going to take quite some time, so I figured not much to lose by trying the Lucas stuff. I crap you not: it completely stopped the leak to the point where I just kept driving it. Sold the car five years later without the leak recurring, so there you go. The stuff is pretty thick so this may not be a good idea where it gets really cold, but here in California where the coldest I see is in the 30s it worked brilliantly.

Obviously this didn't mechanically "fix" anything, but it definitely worked for me so might be worth a shot for $15. And if it doesn't, well, you need to drain and replace the fluid when you replace the rack anyway, so no harm, no foul.

groovzilla

It was a joke,
Stop leak is sort of a joke on a steering rack seal repair and would never solve the problem---->You must have had some sort of pin hole leak in one of the hoses which is uncommon.
They usually all leak at one of the seals. I had this issue on a previous 997 where the seal leaked and my 60 year indy explained it needed to be rebuilt or replaced..

MrMoose

Nope, it was absolutely the outer shaft seal on the rack. 100% certain of it, kinda hard to get that diagnosis wrong when the boot fills with fluid. And the Lucas stuff fixed it for at least five years.

Previously I would've agreed with your mechanic: like I said, I'm not typically a fan of mechanic-in-a-bottle. But in this case it worked and worked amazingly well. YMMV, of course.

alexb76

Thanks for great detailed explanation. I’m gonna fix it eventually but I just don’t drive it as much and never got around doing it. Just wanted to know if it’s dangerous to drive or not.

cheers!

MrMoose

I mean, you should do *something*. It's not going to get better on its own, it'll probably get worse, and it's going to make a mess.

But it's not something that's going to kill you, and as you said it's probably been leaking for a while already, so it's not like you need to immediately park the car.

groovzilla

That's got to be short of a miracle.
I'm not a mechanic but the thought of stop leak sealing seal connections in Steering Rack is hard to believe.
Glad it worked for you.
......Have you ever followed up on the car you sold? Do you know if owner is still alive?

groovzilla

Just a good idea to fix leaks sooner than later. They can create a mess.
I think labor on replacing steering rack is costly but been a while.

8x57IRS

I had a burst hydraulic hose in the steering (when parking) and decided to drive about 300 km home anyway. Every drop of oil I poured in came out again. The hose was repaired, the hydraulic pump wasn't damaged. I didn't really understand why that was, but i had to take the risk. Steering without hydraulic assistance is not nice, but it's no problem.

If the rack needs replacement, stick to overhauled/new units from TRW!

Bruce In Philly

2009 C2S 197K

I had a super slow drip/leak from where the steering pump tank attaches to the pump... I didn't know it and I ran out of fluid resulting in howling and noise. I suspect the leak was from the factory due to either a faulty part or clumsy assembly. I was told here on this forum, in no uncertain terms, I ruined the pump. Well I filled it up and it ran another ... oh I dunno... 150K miles or so. I finally replaced the pump because I was looking for a project and the fluid created a "cement" pasted all down the engine block and parts. The oil was mixing with a dust from NJ nature reserves and made a dang impossible to remove paste. Anywho... running out of fluid made no difference to the pump performance.

BTW. when I did replace the pump, I found the fluid to be black... IMO, this can't be good for all the associated parts. So I flushed the remaining fluid from the system as best I could and added new stuff. To this day, I have not had to add a drop, and yes I check it every time I change the engine oil. Read more here:

https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...fluid-why.html
https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...ement-diy.html

Peace
Bruce in Philly (now Atlanta)

MrMoose

Not really, no. The outer end of the rack is just a rubber seal on a shaft. This particular stuff works by some combination of thickening the fluid so that it's less likely to leak, and conditioning the rubber to restore its flexibility so it seals better.

If you search online plenty of people have had the Lucas product work, that's why I was willing to give it a shot in the first place. Like I said, unlikely to hurt anything: you'll want to replace with fresh fluid anyway when replacing the rack.