Power steering rack brand opinions and experiences, Feb 2022

[Nevada1906]

I bought a rebuilt rack for my 850 back in 2012 from Rack Doctor. It's worked flawlessly ever since.

[thinkoutside1]

I have been trying to figure out which S70 rack to buy for the past few months. There seems to be no consensus on which one is reliable. At some point I will just have to role the dice on something but I just wish there was a clear cut answer as I do not want to have to replace it again given the amount of labor involved.

Question - Does it matter which rack you replace the original one with (SMI or TRW) if you are replacing both the inner tie rods and the outer tie rods at the same time? Will the part, hoses, bolt holes etc. line up regardless of which model you buy?

BTW - I ordered a rack from Rack Dr this year but after about a month of unreturned phone calls and emails and a slew of broken promises I finally canceled my order. Whenever I would get through to them a women would answer ( I assume Rich's wife) and say the rack was going out tomorrow and then follow up with something completely unprofessional like "Rich will kill himself it does not get done within the next 24 hours". This went on for weeks, contradicting stories, no rack shipped, I finally came to the conclusion what good is a lifetime warranty if they can't even be honest with their buyers on the front end. Assuming they are good at rebuilding racks it really is to bad they don't keep their promises and don't have better skills for headlining customer interactions.

[abscate]

I’ve got about 500 miles on my new to me Detroit Axle rebuilt SMI RAck

You can use either brand as long as you preserve inner and outer tie rod matches

[scot850]

I see the delay from the Rack Dr. Unfortunately they are not alone in struggling to supply. I tried to order an aftermarket header set for my V8 4Runner from a well known supplier Doug Thornley. The original is crack prone, so mine has. I asked when I could get one from them and was told to place the order and then it may take 2-6 months depending on batch quantity of orders placed and then a further 6-8 weeks in production followed by delivery from US. Not much help there then! Looks like an original will have to go back on and hope it lasts another 18 years!

Neil.

[MrAl]

For remanufactured power steering racks, which brands are good and which brands should be avoided? What about new aftermarket steering racks? Please share your experiences with the brands, prices, new vs rebuilt, etc.

brunocerous had a rebuilt power steering rack temporarily seize while driving. That thread refers to many instances of Cardone racks seizing up. The problem was so common that FCP stopped selling Cardone rebuilds. The rack brunocerous had may have been Cardone or BBB, so I'm inclined to avoid both of those brands.

AAE is carried by many retailers. They're now a CRP brand, so does that increase our trust in them? They offer new and rebuilt racks, but I'm suspicious of the wide variety of prices for each. I'd love to know how they define "new".

Searching for my 2000 V70 NA FWD, I found the following racks:
Volvo:
Rebuilt for $740 at eEuroparts
Rebuilt for $880 + $50 shipping at VolvoPartsWebStore
Rebuilt for $1090 at FCP

TRW:
Rebuilt for $400 at FCP - not available
Rebuilt for $490 at eEuroparts - not available

Maval:
Rebuilt for $330 at FCP
Rebuilt for $370 at Pelican

AAE (Atlantic Automotive Engineering), a CRP brand:
New for $300 at RockAuto
New for $340 at eEuroparts - back ordered
New for $590 at IPD. Page title contains "reman" but description says "new (not rebuilt)".
Rebuilt for $220 at eEuroparts
Rebuilt for $425 at RM European
Rebuilt for $545 at Pelican

Rack Doctor:
Rebuilt for $260
Lifetime warranty, free shipping, no upfront core charge.

BBB Industries: Be wary of?
RockAuto mentions "BBB Industries markets and sells their products under various brand names, including Genco, Vision-OE and Wilson. The product inside the box is the same, no matter what brand name appears on the box."
RockAuto mentions these have a 3 year, 36k mile warranty.
New for $710 at RockAuto but VIN requirement doesn't match mine.
Rebuilt for $200 at RockAuto

Cardone: Do not buy
Rebuilt for $200 at RockAuto

Part numbers:
Part 8251305 for FWD is used by most retailers. It replaces 5003968 (used by AAE), 9140421, 8602270, and many others
The rack is identified by the chassis plate, right column, line five, final digit. VolvoPartsWebStore lists part 9169210 for chassis plate marked 5 (which my FWD is) and part 9140422 for chassis plate marked 4. usparts.volvocars.com lists part 9461279 for $1760. VPWS and volvocars.com have lots of part number cross references.
RockAuto offers different racks when the 11th digit of the VIN is 1 or 2. A VIN info page says 1 was made in Sweden and 2 was made in Belgium.

Hello,

So are you saying you have Rack and Opinion steering? (sorry couldnt resist that little pun).

But i didnt even know these cars had rack and pinion steering i dont think mine does. 1998 v70 non turbo FWD.

[abscate]

Everything in the P80 forum has rack and pinion steering TTBOMK

[manovlov]

When I was working at the local Volvo dealer about 6 years ago, the accountant there had a Maval replacement rack fitted. It leaked out of the box. The replacement one was also bad (direct from Maval). She was so pissed she had a Volvo one fitted.

These days I am less and less impressed with the quality of Volvo parts. No idea where the re-built units are sourced from. If you are paying that much for one, it is worth having them fit it as it has a lifetime ownership warranty if they fit it.

Neil.

If you can get thst done at book rate of 3.9 hours , take that deal ASAP

Hello abscate, can you explain ""thst" ?

Manov

[abscate]

D‘Accord

Abscate écrit comme un sing……

[matthew1]

Great summary, FF31. Added to VRD.

[foggydogg]

I made contact with Detroit Axle asking if they could rebuild my rack; they said only if I was local to their place.
I'm starting to wonder if everybody is using some third- party vendor, and just reboxing. The Advance Auto rack I got that promptly blew the end seal and oiled down the roadway was not labelled 'Cardone', but it sure quacked and waddled like one.