Wheres the best place to get a 3rd gen steering rack? (OEM or Aftermarket) Mine is "notching" and the local salvage yards are picked clean

2000 TOYOTA 4RUNNER 3.4L V6 Rack and Pinion | RockAuto

I recommend OEM, cost more but worth it in my opinion. My local dealer matched Camelbacks price and had it in stock. If you use TWpartz code you get another 3% off.

2001 Toyota 4Runner Parts - Camelback Toyota Parts - Genuine OEM Parts - Free Shipping

I also recommend OEM rack. Because your also getting inner tie rods. Which are very expensive. If you subtract the inner toe rods the rack it self isn’t expensive. OP spend the little money on OEM rack and get OEM outter tie rods. Nice fresh OEM parts. You’ll be happy.

Get OEM... I bought an aftermarket rack and it leaked after one month! I got a refund and bought an OEM rack.

I went through this recently and after quite a bit of research, I went with a Toyota rack from the dealer. You typically can order online for pickup locally and get a decent discount. In my case, it cost the same as getting it from Camelback but did not have to deal with shipping. The main driving factor to this was the cost of the inner tie rods. Many aftermarket brands I was seeing people have to replace the inners after less than a year. It's not a cheap fix but I am 6 months into my new rack and very glad I went this direction and not aftermarket.

Def now days to go OEM. QC has gone to shit with reman parts.
Bought a reman rack in 03 lasted till 96 totaled in 18, wouldn't go that route now days.

Someone posted this a few days ago...$300 I think;

Steering Rack and Steering Box at Wholesale Prices from Car Steering

Do not use A1 Cardone whatever you do, they have gone to complete crap! I had to warranty Cardone racks 7 or 8 times in one year in 3 customer's vehicles. (2 Cadillacs and an F150) The owner of the F150 finally supplied his own rack from a place called Detroit Axle. First one had a leaky fitting right out of the gate, but the second one has been fine for over a year now. (the Cadillac SRX and the newer F150s have known rack problems) My brother recently got a rack for his 99 4runner from Detroit Axle super cheap and so far so good. As for me I would recommend spending the money on OEM. That is all I will install now at my shop due to the fact, like most people, I hate working for free which is what I'm doing when I charge no labor to warranty a steering rack 4 times.

Get aftermarket so you can do the job over again.

Put in a new rack from CarSteering.com over 6 years ago and it now has almost 95K miles on it. No leaks, no issues. Came with the inner tie rods......

Aftermarket can be bad but in this case, I am TOTALLY PLEASED.

I paid $669.56 in November of 2017 via Camelback for the rack, (included inners), and outers.

Today, the rack itself is the same $557.60 it was 15 months ago, but the outers went up a few bucks a side

I paid $525 for OEM rack at Toyota of Dallas last month. It’s nice that they come with the inner tie rods.

What's "notching"? On/off power steering or just plain no power steering?

Leaking? Been flushed if not leaking?

I've used Detroit axle on several vehicles and my 2 runners...they are 150 I think...Ebay, from their store online..they've all been great...I guess if I had a problem with leaks or whatever they don't take long for me to swap out...but for some it might be a big job.