98 Q45 steering rack question

[vanzant]

Lately I've been hearing (and feeling in the steering wheel) a slight pop when turning. Happens moving or standing. A mechanic said it was coming from the rack, in fact he put his hand on some part of it and said he could feel it when I was turning the wheel. He says I need a new rack. But my question is could it possibly be bushings or other replaceable rack parts, rather than replacing the entire rack? There are no leaks or cracked boots, etc.

[BadQ45t]

I assume you have repaired/replaced you tie rod ends? That is the first thing to go. First, how many miles do you have? Second, do you trust this mechanic? I have replaced two racks in my day, a Maxima at 174k and a Z at 160k....the 97' Q seems solid. I don't hear much about 2nd Gen Q racks going bad, in fact I cannot remember one post about.

Confirm you tie ends are good and also if you don't trust this mechanic get a second opinion.

[vanzant]

I'll look into the tie rod question. It has about 135k miles on it. A second opinion is always good. Thanks.

[BadQ45t]

Okay so at that mileage your tie rods are toast for sure if they have not been replaced. Also if your shocks & struts have not been replaced then those are shot for sure too.

I gotta tell you at this mileage your suspension is probably shot to hell. You should decide if your going to drive this car for another 5 years or just let it die of natural causes. I can tell you at 75k I replaced the tie rods, shocks/struts, springs and a few other rubber parts as well. The rack seems like under ordinary use it should be fine, but if your fluids have been unchanged etc that might be done as well.

Get a good mechanic to size up the whole thing, your looking at 2-3 grand to get the car like new...if not then you should just let her fall slowly into the sea until it falls apart

[MarshallQ45]

2-3 grand to get suspension fixed? I need mine done too so, struts are $221, so 4 is almost 1k but what else, I replaced a bad tie rod a while back so lol I have one new one.

[vanzant]

Wow, thanks BadQ45t. You've taken away my will to live.

[BadQ45t]

Sorry just being realistic. I paid $350 for springs, $700 for shocks/struts and that was for parts with no install. Plus need need to figure out what the status of all fluids are etc.

but compare this to the price of a replacement car in the same build and class...this is cheap in comparison.