as the title says, my steering rack is making noise.
my power steering works fine, but something sounds like it is loose when the car is cold. has anyone else had this problem?
it almost sounds like metal pipe dangling and hitting something w(ithout much slack) when you take a turn when the car is slow but you can barely feel it. the car still turns smoothly and is not sketchy or anything... it doesnt feel like a problem, but it sounds like one.

 

I bet it's the strut tops... take off those rubber covers and get some oil / grease down there.

 

hm.. i've never heard of that. what would cause them to make them make that noise? you mean the tops the caps that are in the engine bay?

 

I've got the same problem. Whenever i turn it makes a metal creaking sound... Doesn't sound good at all... I've got my belt disconnected from my PS.

It started when i hit something in the road and it hit the right hand lower control arm pretty hard. So i'm thinking it might be something with the tierod or something.

Any ideas?

 

yeah mine sounds like the same thing, but i havent hit anything, except my girlfriend's ***.

 

well if the sound goes away with the belt off, it's not the strut tops, or tie rods etc...

the top of the strut are bearings. as the strut turns when the wheel does. mine made noise last year. only when cold.

 

My manual steering TII made a creaking noise (most noticeable at low speeds/high steering angle) and it was the strut top pivots as Scott suggests.

Check the simple/easy/most obvious stuff first.

 

yeah when its a sharp turn at low speed. maybe i'll check that out tomorrow. do i just take off the nut ontop of the strut tower inside the engine bay and dump some oil down there or what?

 

Mine makes the same ******* noise when you drive in the cold. Its embarrasing as hell, if goin to oil the **** out of it tommorrow and see if that helps me.

-CHris

 

wow, looks like i have uncovered a big annoying problem that everyone forgot about

 

well, i got the cover off of the strut tower and there is only one nut. do i jsut take that off and put some oil down there?

 

i took that nut off and i cant get the cover off.

 

just try to get some oil or grease down there...

not sure if taking the nut off was too smart but as long as everything stays together I guess you are ok

 

ok well i'll bump this up again. i took of that nut that is ontop of the strut and put some oil on the bolt, and it didnt seem to do anything. i dont think the oil seeped down into the bearing or not... the car is still making the noise, but it sounds like its coming from the actual rack...

 

there was a tsb about the strut tops doing that. Mine did it for the first minute or so of driving, but it's been fine since I got new shocks in...

Charlie

 

what is a tsb?

 

TSB = Technical Service Bulletin

 

oh.

 

hehe, This rocks, now I can convince my girlfriend it's time to buy a new suspension for my car. Woohoo!

 

you have to ask your girlfriend if you can put new susp. components on your car?

You sure you shouldn't re-evaluate your relationship?

 

he means buy it for him

 

Mine is now making this noise as wel and only started after I hit a curb avoiding an accident.....oiling the top of the strut towers didn't help anything for anybody?

 

Whats the best way of getting oil in the upper strut bearing without taking it all apart? It looks pretty sealed up to me.

 

Actually, she took all my credit cards away from me cause I've got a shitload of credit card debt from working on my old vw gti. So now I have to convince her to buy big things for my car. An engine rebuild was pretty easy, but performance upgrades are still hard to convince her on.

-Mike

 

i haven't seen anyone mention ball joints so it may as well be me. best way to check those are to jack it up so that the side you are checking still has the suspension compressed (so that the shock is compressed as if the tire's still on the ground). put one hand on top of the tire, one on bottom and try and wiggle the tire back and forth. the tire shouldn't move. if it does, it's a ball joint. also, i don't know about the 2nd gen's but if it has lube spots on it, may wanna try lubing it with some grease. if it has lube points, sometimes it'll tighten up the suspension a bit and the tire won't move if you're checking the ball joint. if it DOESN'T have lube points, and the tire moves, may wanna invest in some ball joints (and an alignment). if a ball joint breaks as you're driving it WILL cause a wreck and may mess up the fender as the tire could slam into it.

dunno if that's the problem or not but worth checking (for safety purposes if nothing else).
scott