I've searched some and didn't really find what I was looking for. Here's the deal:

Last year I had very loose steering, so I replaced the lower ball joints, outer tie rods, steering rack bushings, sway bar links, and sway bar bushings. The inners didn't feel too worn, so my plan was to wait a little while to do them. Well, back a few months ago, I started noticing my steering was getting wobbly again, so I had the tires rebalanced and it was still horrible on the highway. Chalked it up to a bad job at a shop I never use and took it to my normal shop a couple weeks ago. Still has a bad wobble in the steering wheel.
I've also been noticing any time I go off pavement, there's a clunk on the front driver's side. I figured the rack guide would fix this issue, and I'd replace the inner tie rods at the same time.

Today, I pulled to ITRE boots to check for play and do some diagnosing....and this is what I found:
Driver's side:

Passenger side:


The driver's side appears to have grease/fluid that is greenish/greyish on the shaft. The passenger side shaft is slick and clean, but has power steering fluid puddled in the boot. I have noticed a small amount of fluid/grease on my garage floor in the past months but thought it was some drip from oil changes, but I've never noticed it on the outside of the boots or anything.

From what I understand, this rack is shot and a replacement is in order, correct? I looked at the Toyota ones for ~$650 + cost of inner tie rods, and I highly doubt I will go that route. Instead, I will likely go with a NAPA reman with a lifetime warranty for ~$360 including the inner ties rods (NAPA rack).

Thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated to know if I'm on the right track with this. Thanks in advance

Toyota rack is less than $600, and it comes with new OEM inner tie rod ends. I highly recommend OEM for this application. Others have had poor luck with remans...but not everyone. For me, it was worth the peace of mind to buy OEM.

Where did you get yours? I was mistaken above when I said the OEM ones I found earlier didn't come with inners. The one I found from Toyota Part Sales is $657.01 shipped (Toyota Part Sales rack). I think that is the correct assembly.
Did you do the install yourself? I'm planning to do it myself with the help of a buddy (helped him replace his steering gear box in his truck this weekend so he owes me some wrench time haha). I had it all but completely removed when I did the steering rack bushings, so I don't anticipate too many problems. Just trying to wrap my ahead around this unexpected problem.

Early morning bump for any info or input anyone can provide. I'm guessing I don't really have any option other than replacement since it seems to be leaking from both ends, right? Any other input on reman vs OEM? Obviously OEM will be better quality, but a reman with a lifetime warranty for half the price on a truck that isn't even a daily driver seems like a good option at the moment. But if it's just going to continue to be a huge headache, I don't want to deal with it.

Thanks

**Edit to add: I checked the power steering fluid and it is full. I've never added any fluid to it (but do not know if it's been topped off when I've had it serviced the past 2 times). If it isn't leaking bad/a lot, is it necessary to go ahead and replace the whole rack?

Mine has a slight drip on the ITR boot on the drivers side but it bothers me not. Periodiacally, I pour in Lucas steering fluid and it stops the leaking and buys me time til I can replace the rack eventually, since my friend has a spare he's keeping for me.

Reman is probably just an oem rebuilt. I would buy one if I was keeping ifs forever

I would be sure to eliminate every other possibility for the wobble being that complete rack replacement is probably the most involved and expensive. However unlikely the remaining options (brakes, CVs, bearings, etc) may be, it would still be worth the gander to me. Especially when the only supporting evidence for a bad rack is a slight leak that has gone unnoticed for, potentially, the entirety of your ownership.

Trace out that new drip. If its true there was no staining on the exterior of the tie rod boots then its almost certain that it wasn't dripping from them. We all know how oil coats what it touches.

Thanks for the input. I will likely wipe everything down this evening to see if it continues to leak. I may try just replacing the rack guide to fix the excessive play and the clunk over bumps and offroad.

Yeah, with a lifetime warranty, the reman from NAPA (going to check some other vendors this evening as well) seems like a good route.

The brakes and rotors are fine (recently replaced), no problems stopping and no pulsing upon application. No CVs .
The clunking and bad bump steer in the front end over bumps and especially offroad, as well as the shaking of the steering wheel (why I had tires rebalanced) and inability of steering wheel to return to center as it should, and lots of play each way of center before the truck/tires begin to steer that way, led me to the possibility of a worn rack guide. Also, when I replaced everything last year, I had the boots off and the rack was NOT leaking at that point (otherwise would've addressed it then). And since I skipped the inner tie rods when I did the rest of the front end work due to not being too sloppy, I figured I'd replace them too. The clunking on this weekend's mild offroad adventure led me to check everything out and finding what is potentially a much worse situation than anticipated. The symptoms listed above, coupled with the pics that seem to show fluid leaking from between the seal and rack and puddling at the end of the rack assembly and in the boots, lead me to believe the rack is shot. I suppose it could just be a slight leak and could possibly get away with something like blcktpgsr is doing and replacing the rack guide to eliminate some slop and the clunk.

I am going to do some more diagnosing this evening and will report back with whatever I find.

Thanks guys for the help and suggestions so far!

UPDATE: This evening I crawled back under the truck to check for excessive play in the rack. My wife turned the wheel back and forth and there is a good bit of up and down movement in the rack and you can feel/hear the clunk (much like the movement in the video in THIS thread). This indicates the rack guide being worn slap out from what I understand.

The driver's side is covered in grease and fluid, as seen more clearly here:

And you can see this puddled up here:


The passenger side wasn't nearly as bad....only leaking PS fluid (a pretty good bit was being contained in the boot itself). I cleaned as much of the goop and fluid off each side as I could.

Do you guys think it's necessary to replace the whole rack and be done with it? Or should I maybe just try to replace the rack guide to tighten things up and cross my fingers that it stops leaking or doesn't leak much?

So have you or have you not replaced your rack guide? I seem to have the same issue as you do with the terrible bump steer. When I'm on a rouger roads (lot of pot holes, washboardy asphalt roads, gravel roads) the steering is terrible. If I would happen to let the wheel go for just a second I'd be in the ditch. However on highway smooth roads it tracks very straight. BTW I also have that sludge looking stuff on my driver side as well but I can't remember the pass. side.

The first thing I'm going to replace on mine when I get the time is the rack guide. It's fairly cheap and pretty easy to replace. If that does not fix it I will then have someone weld my slip joint together on the steering column. It could be something as simple as the suspension as I believe it is stock. If it's still bad after that then I will have to research more to see other possible fixes.

Question about the wobble. Do your tires have any weird wear patterns? Although you have many new front end parts this would lead me to believe it's something other than a rack problem.

I just did guide. I was a skeptic, but now am a believer. Wow. Vehicle has never driven better.

Has anybody had to do an alignment after messing with the rack guides and bushings?? I'm getting conflicting information about this.....

i would recommend one. I needed one after replacing mine.


seriously guys...the rack guide is night and day. by far the best thing ive done to my vehicle in a long long time.

how easy/difficult was it to change? where is it located?

I have NOT replaced the rack guide yet. That and the inner tie rods were my plan when I was trying to verify the clunk sound and found the rack leaking. The bump steer in gravel and offroad at low speeds is really bad in my case too, and like yours it seems to track straight on the highway....just with a lot of steering wheel wobble/side to side movement. My tires also do NOT have any abnormal wear patterns either. Good to know that someone else's rack has that sludge/grease/fluid.

Did yours have the same symptoms I'm describing, and did your rack have the goop all over it like in the pictures above? It looks like the rack in the link above about the rack guide install has the goop all over it too. I'm beginning to wonder if what seems to be a small leak on both sides is maybe not that serious. And possibly due to the upward and downward play allowed by the worn rack guide, causing enough gap to let a small amount of fluid out when it does bounce around. Maybe I can do the rack guide and put some Lucas steering fluid/stop leak in like blcktpgsr and be ok. I just don't want to go through the trouble and waste of money on the rack guide, only to have the rack continue leaking, get worse, and still need to be replaced. That's why I've posted pictures of my situation to compare to what others' looks like.

Thoughts?

I will probably rent a pitman arm puller set and check the inner tie rods to see if they are still good since last year or if they are worn out now too. Bc if they are still good, then the project will possinly only entail replacing the rack guide for $75-80. Otherwise, if they are worn, the cost to replace the guide and ITRs will get very close to the price of a reman rack. Does that make sense? Still trying to find information as to whether a reman rack is worth trying or if it will just provide more headaches due to quality control issues.

Thanks guys.