1999 V70 Cardone PS Rack part - Important

[abscate]

I'll bet they will step up the plate and give Cardone an earful.

In any event, to use amateur legalese, I would say liability is attached since they do frequent these Fora.

What's the labour hours On these rack jobs? I'm seeing 4.2 hours in Alldata

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[JeffHicks]

I'll bet they will step up the plate and give Cardone an earful.

In any event, to use amateur legalese, I would say liability is attached since they do frequent these Fora.

What's the labour hours On these rack jobs? I'm seeing 4.2 hours in Alldata

It took me a heckuva lot longer than 4 hours, when I replaced it back in November. Of course, that included a lot of head scratching and wrench throwing. Then wrench retrieving....

[bmdubya1198]

It wouldn't surprise me if they already stopped selling the Cardone rack. Very shortly after I complained about the Meyle HD upper torque mount bushing, it was no longer available on their site. And that shows they actually listen to their customers when we know there's a problem.

Interesting side note: I wrote an honest review of this part on the FCPEuro website. It was not profanity-laced rant, nor a doomsday tirade. I just said that the thing failed, and explained how.

FCPEuro won't let the review post.

Hmm, that's interesting. Maybe they're getting full of themselves with all this advertising and how they're pushing their warranty now? Honest reviews are important!

What good is a warranty if the parts are substandard potentially causing the car to be wrecked possibly causing death because correct me if I am wrong but a immediate complete left turn at interstate speed likely would cause the car to flip over?

Also that warranty does no good for the loss of use while waiting for the new part and then time for you to put it in plus aggravation. I wouldn't trust a replacement from them because that failure sounds terrifying.

On a side note when I was young my uncle had a 1973 Ford Thunderbird which I absolutely loved. He lived in a one traffic light town which happened to be in front of the only car lot, Ford. We were stopping at the light when the steering column snapped. What luck as the steering wheel was no longer connected to the tires. That was in 1974 and Ford fixed the car. Shortly later my aunt got out of the car at a newspaper box while it was still at fast idle and the car jumped into reverse and flew down the street ramming through someone's living room wall.

Six months after that Ford Motor Company sent notice to my uncle to immediately bring his car in to replace a potentially defective steering column. I am not sure what they called recalls back then. My uncle traded the car in immediately. Many times he would cruise us to Little Rock in excess of the 120 mph speedometer. He talked about what would happen if we had been on the road at that speed and it had broken then. We built such graceful looking, luxurious, powerful cars here in America back then, but the quality was sadly lacking. As that company who rebuilt your part sounds just as bad.

So really what good is their warranty if you are dead or minimally the car is destroyed? Would they replace the car? Or pay for your injuries? If anything this post should warn people that the brand rebuilt rack-and-pinion they sell should be avoided. June

You also have to remember that FCP Euro isn't the problem here, Cardone is. You have to remember the brand making a terrible part that could kill you isn't the fault of the retailer, but the manufacturer. Sure, FCP is selling it and they should stop selling them if they're causing problems, but the blame can't be placed entirely on them.
Plus, their warranty covers buying a replacement part and sending back the old one once you've replaced it, so there is no down time (unless of course the failed part is causing down time).
FCP will also refund your order, unlike some other companies (ROCK AUTO!!!) who insist on REPLACING the junk part with a new junk part. I agree, if the part is crap, why would anyone want it replaced with more of the same crap?

[cn90]

- rmeuropean dot com has the Atlantic Enterprises Steering Rack for about $380 or so.
- At this mileage, even if the car runs perfectly, the car's value is about $600-$1000.

- I understand that most of us here are enthusiasts and are crazy about fixing old cars but there is a point when we need to move on.

- So if this is my car: I'd sell it to a local enthusiast or junk it simply b/c the cost of steering rack plus my labor (I don't have much free time) is up there. Junk yard will pay about $500 for this car.

- Then start looking at S60, S80 with 2.5T engine from 2004-2006, they are good value b/c you can find these at 80K-100K for about $5K.

[cn90]

My 1998 S70 GLT with 190K...the P.O. had the steering rack replaced by the Volvo dealer at 130K or so. For the last 60K, zero issues.

Guess where the dealer got the steering rack from? I saw the receipt, the Volvo dealer got the steering rack from local NAPA auto parts store!

[cn90]

Well, if you want to go for the challenge, then eeuroparts has rebuilt TRW rack for $500:

https://www.eeuroparts.com/Cars/Volvo/1 ... /Steering/

[erikv11]

- rmeuropean dot com has the Atlantic Enterprises Steering Rack for about $380 or so.
- At this mileage, even if the car runs perfectly, the car's value is about $600-$1000.

- I understand that most of us here are enthusiasts and are crazy about fixing old cars but there is a point when we need to move on.

- So if this is my car: I'd sell it to a local enthusiast or junk it simply b/c the cost of steering rack plus my labor (I don't have much free time) is up there. Junk yard will pay about $500 for this car.

- Then start looking at S60, S80 with 2.5T engine from 2004-2006, they are good value b/c you can find these at 80K-100K for about $5K.

As has been discussed in this forum and elsewhere, for most people "the car's value" is a basically irrelevant number here. It's easy to throw that number out there (mechanics love to!) but it's a false comparison. We don't want to know what the car is worth, we want to know what it costs to own and drive it. For the purely economics argument you are posing, the comparison that makes sense is the repair cost versus the cost to get into a car in the current condition of yours (or better). So in other words, if it is $500 and X hours to fix it, you ask yourself if for that same investment, you could end up with some other car that you would prefer, versus your old car with a new rack. Or to put anther way, you compare $500 and X hours to the cost of a different vehicle. Which do you prefer (no right or wrong answer, each person will choose what works for them)?

And of course it's actually more meaningful to consider overall, annual costs, not just the cost of the current repair at hand. Still, it often makes sense to keep a reasonably maintained P80 going, if you can stomach the time under the hood/car. I agree it can be nice to pick up a less-old S60 etc, we have one now and it is a different feel from a P80, but these P2 cars are also more than 10 years old and cost money to maintain. The $5k for a new car (plus annual expenses) dwarfs the cost of fixing a rack (plus annual expenses).

[abscate]

Put another way, it costs you about $2000 in gas to drive 15000 miles. Why spend $2000 in gas on a car worth $1000? Because you have to spend the same on a car worth $10000

Why spend $1500 per year on maintenance on a $1000 car .....see above.

Unless you can beat the cost of maintaining the old car for more than the next car costs plus the cost of money, it makes sense to repair. Of course, it always feels like you are hosed when it's big job, but that next alluring P80 or P2 will also cost you. Just ask our favorite Scot in Alberta!

[JeffHicks]

So I'm getting a little pissed now.

I've contact FCPEuro twice about refusing to post my honest, negative review about the Cardone Steering Rack. They refuse to post the review, and refuse to talk with me about it.

This is not cool. There is no point in even having a review system if you only allow positive reviews - and very likely post them yourself.

[FCPEURO]

Hi Jeff,

First and foremost I'm very sorry to hear of this failure but more importantly I'm glad to hear that your safe. At FCP Euro we take the quality of our offering VERY seriously. The reason why the review wasn't approved right away was that we have a system in place where all negative reviews get forwarded to the Product Managers. Upon our return to the office this morning, it was forwarded to me in which I not only approved it, but I immediately took the unit down from our site and emailed Cardone on the issue. Unfortunately this isn't something to take a chance on, so all remaining stock has been boxed up to be sent back to the manufacturer.

Again, I've very sorry for all the trouble on this, but you can be assured that we're handling the matter and its being taken very seriously.

If there's anything I can do for you in the mean time please feel free to reach out to me directly.
My personal email address is [email protected]

My sincerest apologies

Jason