Has anyone done WPC treatment on the internal components of the rack and pinion? I want to try this and in theory it should make a huge difference. I see the moving parts inside and see friction. What are you thoughts? I will also add polyurethane bushings. This thing will be badass!

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Unless you can strengthen the orings, or expect the treatment to keep the internal piston from bending, or tie rods from bending, it won't do anything at all. The rack and pinion gears aren't the weak part. Besides its only a surface treatment for abrasion purposes, it won't make the metal stronger.

The main objective is to reduce friction in this scenario to have a more smooth, responsive and razor sharp steering. That is what I am trying to accomplish. If you look at the second diagram you can see those moving parts like the gears that I circled in red. I did polyurethane bushings on my Miata rack and pinion and it made a huge difference so now I wanna take it to another level. I will experiment and see if I can improve the steering on my 4Runner. I spoke to my rebuilder who only specializes in doing rack and pinion and he said we could also do WPC treatment on the main internal shaft.

I believe the simple fact that this treatment reduces Morning Sickness makes it worthwhile.

I doubt this will give you less friction than a ground and polished rod sliding against an oring submerged in oil.

Throw on a steering quickener if you want to change anything. Or mess with the alignment and tires/pressures.

How so? Explain to me why ground and polish is better in this scenario and why doing WPC treatment in the any of the internal parts that undergo friction is bad, and be technical about it, give me some real world examples if possible. What I am doing in this scenario is no different than doing WPC treatment on the internals of a gun. You will get much smoother movement of the internals so it will feel a lot better. So far nobody has been able to give me any legit and technical reasons why they think this is a bad idea but they just say it is. It's not very convincing to a person like me.

FYI, I do have an MS in chemical & life sciences and an MS in biotechnology. So I am very science focused. I like seeing evidence. To me this whole project is a $467 gamble and a scientific experiment. The question is whether what I'm doing is gonna make any enhancement in the overall driving experience and will it make the steering way more precise and responsive and my gut feeling and common sense tells me it probably will. I mean I aint spending more money doing this than buying a new unit from the dealer so I got nothing to lose.

I have done WPC treatment on several parts for various cars of mine through out the years. I think it makes sense on many parts, but I don't believe this would be one of them. I think full replacement in most cases is better than rebuilding simply due to wear from the elements, fortunately you and I don't have much to worry about in that regard.

Guess what. I finally had the steering rack rebuilt. Here are the specs.

-OEM Toyota steering rack rebuilt kit with oem dust boots
-Energy suspension polyurethane bushings.
-WPC treatment on the rack and pinions gears
-Current steering I have has black spray paint coating, but the next one I rebuild will be media blasted and powder-coated in black.

For the first pic...the one on top shows my steering rack after WPC treatment and the one on the bottom shows what it looks like if you abuse the hell out of it. The whole point of me going thru all this trouble is to get a smoother, more precise, and sharper steering and to prevent a normal rack from turning into the messed up one you see on the bottom.

The second pic shows what the WPC treatment looks like on the rack and pinion.

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Looking forward to reading about your before and after steering wheel torque values and slop measurements.

Here is the first run. It has a black paint finish that wasn't powder-coated and uses plastic dust boots.


For the 2nd one I will do it much better. I will add media blasting and powder-coating to the body in a black finish, source higher quality internal seals that is better than OEM and then find a silicone dust boot. I found out that Toyota will no longer be selling the steering rack rebuild kit for the 4th gen 4Runner anymore so that means someone has to build a replacement kit.

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Steering rack is on the car and it turns very smoothy and precisely. All I need is to figure a way to test it to get the steering wheel torque values and slop measurements.

Now when I make a sharp turn there is no delay due to the reduction in friction. It goes in the desire direction immediately. My car currently has Eibach sport shocks with new front oem springs and all new oem rubber suspension bushings. Waiting for the Eibach rear adjustable springs for the 4th gen. New tires Falken 265/75R16 AT tires.

If any of you wanna test drive my car to see for yourself how the steering feels, PM me. I can rebuild your car’s steering rack for anyone who is interested for any Toyota trucks. Mine would have powdercoating on the exterior, oem internal seals, oem dust boots, WPC treatment on the internal rack & pinion gears, and polyurethane bushings.

What are some of the proper tests applicable to for this steering rack in addition to torque value and slope measurement? Some of you naysayers were talking smack saying this was all hype. You were wrong and I was right. In theory I knew it would work, and it did work in real life.

Can you provide the Energy Suspension part number for those steering rack bushings? Also, is there anything specific you need to do to install them? I've heard that the ES bushings require the sleeves left in when working with them, although that might just be for suspension and not rack bushings...

Energy Suspension 8.10108R Rack And Pinion Bushing Set.

I just gave the bushings to my mechanic. He did the install. Nothing complicated. I was told the Tacoma and 4Runner steering rack bushings are the same but need someone to confirm. The Tacoma bushings are only around $30 online. I wished Superpro made one for our car. The steering feel is now razor sharp, fast and smooth. My god when you are taking corners at a high speed you feel just how great they are, handles like a sports car. And when I switch lanes on the freeway there is no hesitation...it goes immediately. Lane changes are now super quick...it's like you're riding a motorcycle....it's so much more responsive that I really need to have both hands on the steering wheel sometimes. Now I also look forward to making U-turns as it is so much easier and fun to do so. I would never go back to the stock rebuilt steering rack from the dealer. Hell no! Basically my rebuilt steering rack beats the Toyota rebuilt steering rack from the dealer in every single category. Not kidding. It performs better, is more durable, and cost several hundred dollars less. It is a day and night difference. Any of you wanna test drive my car you are welcome to do so.

I liked it so much I’m gonna see if I can patent this remanufacturing process. I’m paying my lawyer to do a patent search. So do any of you naysayers wanna talk more smack? I look forward to getting unbiased and independent test data to prove to you all that it does exactly what I said it would do. I took it to my mechanic (RS Auto Works) in LA and Richard the owner says the steering on my car is much smoother than his 2009 4Runner. He didn't have a chance to drive it on the freeway though...he would have been much more impressed if he did. In summary, I challenge anyone to test drive my car and compare it to your car, then post your review on this thread.

Are there any 4th gen owners in the Los Angeles that might be interested in test driving my car to see how it feels on the freeway? On the street it is so much better than the oem steering rack in every category. But on the freeway it is so insanely responsive that you can't take your hands off the steering wheel for safety reasons.