Napa Steering Rack
- Thread starter Nelsonmd
- Start date
Register to hide this ad
PitbullRescuer
New member
No experience. But Advance Auto sells the A1 Cardone reman pretty reasonably. Cardone turns out some great reman parts.
lhsoulrebel
New member
I can't speak for the napa rack... But I can say that I have had terrible luck with anything not oem.... I installed a junk yard rack 18mo and 25k miles ago... No issues.. My advice is find a reputable junk yard, and purchase one from them. Good luck!
lhsoulrebel
New member
I partially take that back... I do have some reman cardone tundra calipers, and I haven't had any issue with those... So I don't disagree with pitbullrescuer
JayRolla
New member
Calipers reman are not to bad, no madder who makes them. Not much going on. The rack is different. I researched for weeks trying to find the best new rack. I ended up buying the New toyotasteering.com rack. Cost more but from research said it should be the best other than OEM.
I will never buy a non OEM rack again. Its sloppy. Never as tight as the original rack. I will buy junkyard first. Its such an important component to the steering that I know better from now on.
I will never buy a non OEM rack again. Its sloppy. Never as tight as the original rack. I will buy junkyard first. Its such an important component to the steering that I know better from now on.
Nelsonmd
New member
So you weren't happy with the Toyotasteering rack? I am hesitant to hit a junkyard as everything up here has had extreme salt exposure, and the selection of 4runners around here in the junkyards isn't very good.
A new OEM rack is about $650 shipped, or the Napa for $320. Toyota steering is $370 shipped for a new one.
MojaveMadMan
New member
Try car-part.com. You have access to parts yards all over the country and can find anything. You can get a rack from a yard on the west coast that doesn't have rust/salt issues. I do reccomend calling the different yards instead of using the email functions on there. I have yet to have one email me back...
JayRolla
New member
If I did it again I would buy the $650 one. Maybe if I returned it they would send me another one. But its been a year now, I replaced everything else and just lived with it to long. Now have have checked everything and rack still has 2inch play back forth before the tire even respond. My shaft though the firewall is fine. Toyotasteering told me it could be my 33" mud tires causing it but it was fine before the swap.
Wierd thing is if in 4x4 it seems to be a lot more solid and when im braking hard it seems to get solid. Not sure if its a pump issue or the rack but no issue before swap.
Look around online, if you can find a dry, low mileage oem go for it!
cj80cruiser
Senior Member
Maybe the bushings are just crap and switching to the daystar poly bushings would make it firm up your steering.
JayRolla
New member
I have poly bushings. Rack is 100% solid, nothing moves on the rack. I have checked everything. New front suspension, new lower and upper ball joints, new inner and outer tie rod ends, new power steering lines. All OEM parts except the lift suspension and rack.
cj80cruiser
Senior Member
Ok, thought the 2" of play might have been crappy bushings sent from the aftermarket rack company.
Hmmmm, I wouldnt think the pump was the problem if steering tightened when applying brakes. Seems the lower rpms would make the pump worse off.
Must be something internally wrong with the rack then. $300 plus is quite an investment for that much slop.
Can air get in the lines when swapping out the rack? I haven't swapped one out yet.
[MENTION=56021]Nelsonmd[/MENTION] or [MENTION=50342]JayRolla[/MENTION] I think I still have an OEM rack in my partout truck. If I do, it only has 118k miles showing on the odometer. I have no idea if it has any issues because the truck wasn't running when I got it.
If you pay shipping I will send it to you if one of you guys want to try it out. Just pay me $75 (negotiable) if it works. If it doesn't then of course I wouldn't expect any money and sorry for the trouble.
Last edited:
BamaDrewski
New member
I had the same challenge about a year and a half ago. My rack was going bad and leaking everywhere. I did weeks of research and ended up purchasing a brand new rack from carsteering.com. The rack arrived and it was outstanding!!! All brand new and included the inner tie rods. I had a local shop install it and the only issue was with the feed lines from the power steering pump. The connections to the OE rack were frozen on solid (probably as a result of road salt when I lived in upstate New York). I went ahead and had them replace all the feed lines with a genuine Toyota OE assembly. They installed the new rack from carsteering and now, a year and a half later, I have not had one single issue out of it. It has a great warranty as well. For me personally, if I had to do it all over again, I would go this route. I think the rack was a little over $300. For a brand new rack with a great warranty, it is hard to beat!!!! And for those of you wondering; I do not work for carsteering.com and have absolutely nothing to do with them other than being a very satisfied customer......
JayRolla
New member
I was thinking it could be air in the lines. It feels and acts like it has air in the lines. I have done the procedure twice to remove the air. I had the front off the ground this weekend, man I wish I would have tried again to remove the air.
If Nelsonmd dont want it I might get that rack from you. This weekend Im installing a new Koyo radiator. Im going to try and get the air out again and see what happens. Thanks for the offer!
JayRolla
New member
So last night I tried to remove the air from the lines. Looks like there was a little but the steering is still super loose. Im now talking with toyotasteering.com about what could be causing it. Its got a 36 month warranty, just dont want to pull it and wait for replacement as this is my daily driver.
Wierd thing is it gets solid in 4x4 and when braking hard. I dont see why lower rpms and more engine load would cause the rack to tighten up like it should always be. I will keep you guys posted on what they say.
Wierd thing is it gets solid in 4x4 and when braking hard. I dont see why lower rpms and more engine load would cause the rack to tighten up like it should always be. I will keep you guys posted on what they say.
Nelsonmd
New member
Well I picked up the Napa rack this morning, and it has the old style rack guide, not the updated one. Napa actually lists different part numbers for the 00 and the 01, so the 01 PN must have the updated guide. I think I am going to return this one and pick up the 01 rack from another store that has it in stock.
BrianSD_42
New member
How much did it cost you?
Nelsonmd
New member
$282 +$222 core. The 01/02 version is $287.
JayRolla
New member
So I finally think I found what was wrong with the rack. The new rack had bad inner tie rod ends from the beginning, at least I think they where. I am going to remove them tomorrow and install my oem old ones and see if it tightens up. Maybe I killed them first time I hit the trail because I hit full droop a lot. I even hit full droop in the parking lot at work when the snow drifts are there LOL. I just wanted to rant because Ive been fighting loose steering for a year after replaceing, rack and pinion, ITRE's, OTRE's, LBJ's, UBJ's, shocks and springs. You think after all that I would be good. Thats what I get for going non ome. I dont recommend the Toyotasteering.com racks. They also have not called me back, answered there phones or even one email in over a month.
