I have been trying to get to the bottom of a click click noise in my steering when I turn the wheel left and right. I am doing this with the engine off.
The car recently started to "wander" on the highway. The problem did seem to start out of no where.
The car has 160K miles, the rack was replaced 10 yrs ago. The tie outer tie rods were NOT replaced.
I replaced the outer tie rods and the steering and feel improved significantly but probs stated above still persist but car is much tighter.
I did check the inner tie rods and I did not think they were a problem but I then replaced them next.
Again, the car improved even more BUT the clicking is still there and the wander is much less than before.
My gut originally felt it was the rack itself and when I replaced the driver side inner tie rod I noticed the shaft had movement when I would unscrew the large nut that holds it in place. I am talking about unnatural rotational movement of the shaft that just struck me as not being normal.
I tried to turn shaft at rag joint while holding the rack shaft to isolate the click but it has been difficult to isolate.
It feels like it is in the column but from underneath it feels like it is in the rack...the damn click travels harmonically thru the system.
I bit the bullet and ordered a new rack BUT I am wondering if there is anything that can make a click click in the actual steering column. The rag joint is GOOD...again I am thinking internal rack issue at the pinion gear but I am open to thoughts...
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