What aftermarket power steering racks actually don't leak?

I get the car back from Firestone ( Lifetime Alignment agreement) and the racks starts to leak out PS fluid in a steady flow drip. I'm pissed!. It's the second A1- cardone in a year. Should I go with Atsco (Autozone), Oreilly's offers another brand at more than double the cost $258.99 + tax. It actually states to use Honda PS fluid to avoid voiding warranty.

The cardone came with red hydraulic fluid that was flushed out completely with honda clear PS fluid ($6.29 per quart X 4). I'm just thinking that they used the cheaper red crap for keeping the seals lubed.

I need suggestions, greatly appreciated.:dunno::burn:

The replacement rack my mechanic (Danny's Import Services in Lewisville) installed in 2003, 160,000 miles ago, is still leak free. He uses a remanufacturer somewhere "in California." Based upon that and my rebuilt transmission I can tell he uses only specialists and his rebuilt stuff is about the best you can get in that arena. PM me and I'll send you the phone number, if you're interested. If you tell Danny I referred you he will probably reveal his source. Be prepared to pay more than what you would at Autozone.

I would keep an eye on it since that could be back pressure leak from moving the steering while the car is not running. If they did a caster check they may have done that. The fluid would hold up in the dust boot and trickle out .
Idealy that shouldnt happen but it may not be a permenant leak.

I wont say it's not the Cardone rack though, they are hit and miss and they miss a lot.
Ac delco is rebuilding a quite a bit and they're cheep but im not sure they do 3 gen.
I like that they void warrenty with no Honda fluid, so does that mean oem seals were used throughout? Hmmm

I just paid the money to get the good rack at Nappa, it leaked for a short time then it quit leaking, I suspect the brand new seals may swell from the fluid after a period of time

I was just looking at NAPA, I'm interested in the one Mike's mechanic installed.

It cost me right around $500 installed. So, I am sure it would cost more than the parts store racks. But, it really sounds like you get what you pay for. You gotta figure a mom & pop operation like Danny's is wants to avoid comebacks like the plague. Just note that after I had the rack replaced I had to replace several other leaky things in the intervening years. They were the high pressure hose (2nd time in the car's life), several return hoses, a seal kit for the P/S pump, and one of the custom molded lines between the pump and the reservoir.

By now I am thinking a manual rack might be a nice thing! :)

I picked up a Napa one with lifetime leak warranty but obviously have not used it yet.

I guess I had my fill of "lifetime warranty" parts from Chief Auto in the 80's. It does not mean you won't expend your time and labor multiple times. However, I have found NAPA and O'Reilly's to be on a somewhat higher level than Auto Zone. I wish I could recall what Danny told me about "sleeved" racks. Apparently, there is a quick and dirty way to rebuild them and a RIGHT way to do it. That does not mean that the Q&D rack won't last. It just means that it has a lower probability of lasting.

I don't have a lot of extra time on my hands so sometimes I just pay Danny to fix the car. He respects it because it is obvious that an anal retentive type (me) has maintained it for 23 years. He knows that I am going to check his work. His aftermarket suspension parts aren't that great, but his reman stuff is top notch. For example, he will only use rebuilt alternators from Denso. My suspicion is that Denso does a good job of rebuilding its own stuff. They used to use the same brand of new radiator that I picked, but found that an all-metal part was more likely to leak than a plastic/metal part so they changed brands. When I replaced mine after just three years (one of those lovely lifetime warrantied parts) the new one was plastic and metal.

I will tell you that it was EXTREMELY hard for me to find a mechanic. I did 100% of the work on this car from 1989 to 2003. When the oil pan gasket was leaking badly enough I needed to find a place to do it so I could keep going to the office to pay the bills. This shop was recommended to me and I had a good, long conversation with Danny, the owner. Believe it or not, guys like us have nearly as much trouble finding a good shop as someone who knows nothing about cars. Many shops treat knowledgeable guys like crap because they either think they know more, or they just resent the fact that we may know more about our own cars than they do. Thankfully, I have found neither to be the case with this shop. They literally only work on THREE cars of this vintage and all are in great condition. I am the only one of the three who knows the car intimately, though. Sometimes, they just tell me what's wrong and say, "You can do this yourself and save some money." Now, THAT is what I call a good shop. Quite a rare find these days.

Oreilly's came through with a MOOG reman unit (only charged a difference of $63) , I will install it tomorrow. They also comped some new power steering fluid for the new rack & pinion unit.

in my own opinion formed from my experience in the automotive trades,
dont use a mechanic for fuck all apart from engine repairs.
use specialists.
they cost more , they know what they are on about.
i'm an auto electrician and see mechanics screw up what to me are the most simple things.
most specialist auto transmission places will do power steering pumps and some will do racks as well.
wouldnt trust any aftermarket parts warehouse that does everything.
find a good mechanic for the engine problems
an auto electrician for starting,charging,power windows, hvac etc.
the actual hourly rate maybe more expensive than a general mechanic, but 95% of the time they will find the problem faster and have access to the right stuff at a better rate.

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/for...e/23441/page1/

That will save you a good deal of trouble.

they must have stopped making the good racks,figures.

Well, they ended up determining the cause of the failures of the properly rebuilt racks to be incorrect fluid. I won't run anything but Honda OEM power steering fluid anymore.

The lifetime warranty one I bought from advance 2 years ago is holding up well. Unfortunately, I let my idiot friend fill it up with what he had in his garage, which I later found out is transmission fluid. "It's the same thing!" and this guy is an ASE certified master mechanic....geez. So it's a ticking timebomb but it's held up great for the last two years. :dunno:

And yes, it has Honda PSF in it now, but the trans fluid was in it for a couple of months.

Oh and "VanillaSky HalfDork"

I think you may need to be upgraded soon ;)

these racks have a bad reputation of leaking even when new, mainly because of the power steering fluid issue, I know a lot of people who swore the honda fluid was the same, only overpriced because it said Honda. It's not the same but try to convince your average person to pay three times the price of prestone or similar

Well it's in, waiting for an alignment tomorrow at Firestone. Glad I spent $99 fifteen years ago for that lifetime alignment agreement.

It did not have ATF in it, like the A1-cardone units, so maybe its a sign. Yet I still flushed it with 2 quarts of Oreilly's Honda specific power steering fluid.

It's funny talking about Original Honda power steering fluid, thats the only stuff I used when I first bought the car, yet the original Honda rack leaked as well.

napa dude.... i work at napa and can tell you now that all of our reman products arent cheaply redone they are 100 % quality rebuilt. there is a reason that i delvier parts to ever dealership from nissan to VW,,,,

If this one doesn't work then I will be going to NAPA, thanks for the info.

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Originally Posted by 88lxi-shortram

napa dude.... i work at napa and can tell you now that all of our reman products arent cheaply redone they are 100 % quality rebuilt. there is a reason that i delvier parts to ever dealership from nissan to VW,,,,

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most of them lol, there is the lower grade and the higer grade I've gotten a few of the lower grade parts but most are good

It's at Firestone, well see after I go pick it up.

good luck with the new replacement

Car is back, with no leaks so far. This was MOOG reman rack & pinion unit. It was not shipped with ATF fluid. Which I believed was a major plus. Will keep you all updated.

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Originally Posted by nswst8

I get the car back from Firestone ( Lifetime Alignment agreement) and the racks starts to leak out PS fluid in a steady flow drip. I'm pissed!. It's the second A1- cardone in a year. Should I go with Atsco (Autozone), Oreilly's offers another brand at more than double the cost $258.99 + tax. It actually states to use Honda PS fluid to avoid voiding warranty.

The cardone came with red hydraulic fluid that was flushed out completely with honda clear PS fluid ($6.29 per quart X 4). I'm just thinking that they used the cheaper red crap for keeping the seals lubed.

I need suggestions, greatly appreciated.:dunno::burn:

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Couple thoughts. One, I wouldn't go near Firestone with a Hazmat suit and a good life insurance policy. Just sayin'. There's no way of knowing if one of their guys decided to help you out by topping off your PS fluid reservoir with "whatever" they had sitting around.

Two, if I got a rack filled with ATF, I would run ATF in it. (In truth, I would return it, but that's another rant.) As far as I understand it, the type of fluid you run in the rack is not the problem. Changing is the problem because the incompatible fluids eat the seals. I'm not a chemical engineer, obviously, but that's my understanding of it. The seals are probably all nitrile and nitrile doesn't particularly care what you throw at it as long as you are consistent.

Good luck with the new rack.

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Originally Posted by Dr_Snooz

Couple thoughts. One, I wouldn't go near Firestone with a Hazmat suit and a good life insurance policy. Just sayin'. There's no way of knowing if one of their guys decided to help you out by topping off your PS fluid reservoir with "whatever" they had sitting around.

Two, if I got a rack filled with ATF, I would run ATF in it. (In truth, I would return it, but that's another rant.) As far as I understand it, the type of fluid you run in the rack is not the problem. Changing is the problem because the incompatible fluids eat the seals. I'm not a chemical engineer, obviously, but that's my understanding of it. The seals are probably all nitrile and nitrile doesn't particularly care what you throw at it as long as you are consistent.

Good luck with the new rack.

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the Honda seals were supposed to be self healing, anything other then the Honda fluid simply destroys them, the Honda fluid is actually a synthetic type fluid, it's nothing like prestone or ATF