Rack and Pinion seal

[Mike W.]

No big surprise, I'd spent some time on the White Rim Road this summer on vacation and been using P/S fluid ever since. But the rack is leaking on the Q. I've found a seal kit, but how big a job is it? Looks like a full rack is only about $50 at Pick and Pull, admittedly likely with a million miles on it, but if it's dry it probably doesn't leak, at least now. The split boot, along with my off road detours, which is the whole reason I bought the thing, suggests the cause. I'd been under there just before the trip doing the oil cooler but didn't notice a bad boot. Who knows, it doesn't matter now, it's leaking. The kit is cheap enough, only $40 or so, plus a new boot or two and if I can do it in place it's a win. If I have to pull the whole thing anyway, I dunno which way I'll go.

And I'm assuming a Q is the same R and P as a Pathfinder?

[mdmellott]

...been using P/S fluid ever since. But the rack is leaking on the Q. I've found a seal kit, but how big a job is it?

The seal kits I saw on RockAuto for your '03 are very complete seal replacement kits. The FSM shows the replacement of every seal to be very tedious but doable easily enough with the entire rack first removed. Even if its just the rack seals leaking, the pinion has to be removed first so that just gets awkward if the whole thing isn't removed first. As for the P/S fluid, I know there are alternate fluids to the OEM recommended ATF for the power steering, but I would stick with the same ATF used in the automatic transmission as recommended.