Reconditioned Steering Rack

[Gazh]

Hey Folks Thought i would post my latest job, might be of use to others.

My car has been plagued by leaving patches of LDS wherever i park my car.

I found a steering rack company on eBay They are in Wakefield Yorkshire and their deal is you remove the rack pay your £180 they send a courier to collect the rack and return it three days later. 

Noticed on the input shaft they had left It bare metal and pitted apart from the lower 15mm which was painted same black as the rack.

I reasoned the input oil seal had failed because rusty water had run down it and caused the oil seal to fail.

SO before i refitted the rack i cleaned the weathered input shaft with thinners and gave it two coats of smooth metal paint. Just so it does not rust and cause the oil seal to fail.

It is a pure pleasure to look beneath my car and not see a drop of oil. Gary

                                                                                                 

[paul.h]

Thankyou for posting. Did you need to replace the seals where the pipes join the rack ? This is a common problem on the 2008 on C5 and £180 to fix it seems a bargain, plus I guess doing the tracking unless the company has not had to move the track rod ends. As well as the paint you might consider applying some grease and checking this as a service item.

 

This is from the Common Problems topic and I will add your topic to it.

25. New C5 (mark 3/X7) steering rack oil leaks - at least 8 cases so far.

We have 2 members jefflad and Howiec with steering rack leaks that are proving difficult to fix. Where the supply and return pipes join the rack, the seals are leaking fluid. It seems Citroen want to replace the pipes to fix this and that just replacing the O-ring seals does not work. Citroen also do not sell the seals separately. An additional 2 members, Parkesie and johnfing, have found a leak from the steering column shaft input seal on top of the steering rack, which initially was thought to be the pipe seals. This seal also is not available so replacement racks have been fitted. The column shaft has badly rusted so may be the cause of the leak - applying grease could possibly prevent this. See http://www.citroen-o...uid/#entry75684 . See also this topic for info on replacing the rack

http://www.citroen-o...ent/#entry81594

 

There are 2 more cases here and one being caused by corrosion of the rack where the alloy oil pipes connect http://www.citroen-o...-leaking-fluid/

 

Have a look at this topic from C5greener for another leak point in the piping near the rack http://www.citroen-o...-steering-leak/

 

This topic from taximan61 for his 2011 C5 (X7) had the leaking rack and pipes repaired in Wakefield. This is the youngest C5 with a leaking rack so it is not just the early ones that leak. http://www.citroen-o...-steering-leak/

The company in Wakefield also recommend replacing the low pressure pipe since it is alloy at the end but is held by a steel clamp which causes corrosion.

 

Another to add to the list from twoseefives http://www.citroen-o...eering-failure/

[Gazh]

Hello Paul.h ,

                  The leaking rack had been going on for quite a while ,I gave it to my local m.ot garage to try and cure the leak. When you view it from underneath it looks like the feed pipes are leaking. so The garage rings me and says Citroen won't sell the "o" rings seperatley and want £250 for replacement pipes, I was a bit gutted but told them to go ahead ,at a cost of £539 !!! it seemed to be cured? 6 months later the rack is leaking again. I gave it back to the garage they had it six days and it came back to me leaking. It was then I realised it must be the input pinion. so rang a local indipendant citroen garage and he told me the last rack he did on a c5 was £1000 ,could not entertain that so found the deal on ebay , nice weather so i thought lets go for it. now its done and i have recovered. I am very happy with it. no oil leaks.

 so looking back on it,initially it must have been leaking from the pipes,and mighty unfortunate that Citroen feel the need to rip everyone off, but you just have to accept it sometimes.

             then six months later the pinion oil seal gives out.hence reconditioned rack.

.

                                                                                                                                                                                                Gary .