2013 XC-60 Steering rack centering

[Tingmaestro]

Hello all,

New here! Thus far I have been able to overcome many hurdles with my XC60 dad-mobile counting on my own wits and of course the trusty youtube, but I find myself at a cross roads.. I was suffering the the wandering clunky steering and 10 degree dead zone I have found a bit of information about and finally accepted my steering rack was bad (rebuilt the entire front end when I purchased the vehicle two years ago). I recently purchased and installed a rebuilt steering rack from what felt like a less than ideal vendor (Everything is out of stock and I could not justify the $1500 for new oem). The problem I am having is when the rack is pretty well centered @ 11" (+/- maybe 1/8" either side from the sway bar) my steering wheel is 90 degrees out. I locked the wheel in with the seat belt, so there was no chance it became disoriented during the replacement. I have watched disassembly videos of the steering wheel and I fear I am going to throw out the angle sensor if I just clock the steering wheel to adjust for the new rack. Right now I have about 1.25 revolution to lock left and 1.75 revolution to lock right (hence the 90 degree/0.25 adjustment). I am looking for any advice to remedy the situation. Do I need to bite the bullet and purchase VIDA access to recalibrate the angle sensor? From what I could tell in the videos I have watched, the sensor has two locator pins that are going to disrupt my ability to just clock it like an older vehicle without the angle sensor would.

Thank you for any input. I've been a garage mechanic for about 14 years now and I think this is this first job I wish I just paid somebody to do. (This includes the hell I went through doing subframe reinforcements on my E46 )

[MoVolvos]

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When turning left and right lock to lock you have to bring the rack back to center. Remove the steering wheel and center. Turn left and right lock to lock again and see if the turns are equal on both sides. If so proceed to an alignment.
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[Tingmaestro]

I went a little deeper down the rabbit whole and disassembled the steering wheel to have a better look at the yolk and steering wheel assembly. I needed a 90degree adjustment to center the rack. The yolk and rack are not really independently adjustable as they have to orient a certain way to allow the yolk to bolt back on. The wheel has to orient a specific way to satisfy the angle sensor. The kicker is the wheel bolts up to a hex and not a spline limiting me to 6 adjustment positions. The hex pattern offers me increments of 60 degrees adjustment. The math would be a LCD for these angles is 180 degrees. If I could rotate both the wheel orientation and rack position 180 degrees, that would put me at center when I returned the wheel to top dead center. Unfortunately unless I am missing something, My two options are either rotate the yolk position 60 or 120 degrees to get as close to 90 as adjustment will allow. After trying this, I got respone of this like 1.65 to 1.35 at 120 degrees and about 1.45 to 1.55 at 60 degrees (rotations left/right from center). The 60 degree adjustment could honestly be as close as factory ever was, I honestly can't say I ever noticed. What I found strange was being essentially the same difference from 90, I thought I would've seen a more similar response just reverse between 60 and 120. It make me feel like I'm missing something and I'm hoping that's true, because I'd like to dial in this steering at 1.5 to 1.5 and if that requires recalibration the angle sensor, but I'd like to get it right.

Thank you for any input!

[scot850]

Has the subframe been out on the car? Was the collar from the shaft to the rack disconnected? If this was, perhaps the steering wheel was not locked or the rack not centered before fitting. Center the steering rack, then disconnect the collar and rotate the steering wheel straight and then reconnect.

Neil.

[Tingmaestro]

The rack is centered. The wheel still wants to be out 90 degrees from the stock position with everything back exactly as it came out to center the rack. The wheel did not move during removal, as it was locked into place with the seat belt. The back of the subframe was dropped to allow clearance to remove the rack. The subframe went back almost exactly where it was originally located and is out at most a mm (thanks to the oil/dirt stains). The only thing I can deduce is the remanned rack is slightly out of what the factory rack position would be. I'm going to play around with it a little more on Sunday and see if I can figure it out. I don't believe a recalibration will help either because the locking screw to keep the sensor located would then been way off. I may just have to live with my lock to lock being slightly off, but this weekend I will have more than an hour or two to really think about it and try different things.

Thanks

[MoVolvos]

After trying this, I got respone of this like 1.65 to 1.35 at 120 degrees and about 1.45 to 1.55 at 60 degrees (rotations left/right from center). The 60 degree adjustment could honestly be as close as factory ever was, I honestly can't say I ever noticed.

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With the 1.45 to 1.55 left to right or right to left what is the difference in front and rear toe when the steering wheel is centered? This is measured with the car running and turning the steering wheel to center while on the ground. After centering shut off the engine to measure. You can put a layer of plastic grocery bags on the bottom of the tires to help make the tires rotate more freely while centering the steering wheel.
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[MoVolvos]

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Not familiar with the yoke setup whether you have spline adjustments. Can you try this and see when the rack is centered will the steering wheel be centered also?
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[Tingmaestro]

The car is still partially disassembled, so i can't speak on its relation to the rear. I am trying to get the rack dialed before I reinstall tierod ends and drop it back off the jack stands and align it. I wish I had some pictures to help show exactly what I'm up against. Essentially the yolk bolts to the rack in one fixed position, because it locks in like some ball joints do with a bolt that passes through a pinch collar and uses the depression in the rack as a locking point. The wheel bolts to a hex and not a spline, so minor adjustments are unavailable and ultimately offers 60 degree adjustment points. I am using the sway bar as my static point and measuring to the inner tie rod end to ensure the rack is as close to center as I can get it (roughly 11 inches is what it works out to be so that the inner tierod ends are equidistant). The rack arrived to me centered, but I did not review the position of the depression to see if it was the same as where my wheel was locked in at TDC. I only found out after, when I connected everything that my lock to lock was way out. As previously mentioned the two adjustments I made gave me odd results, but I do forsee the 60 degree adjustment being livable and probably not a huge hindrance to the dtsc system, if I can't figure out a way to get it prefect at 1.5 each way.

[Tingmaestro]

I have gone every which way to Sunday to mechanically align this thing based on the stock positions. There is no way to get it perfect; period. The rack has to be out based on the remanufactuers efforts. The following photos show everything I have been up against and are the rack in a perfectly centered state (connected to the yolk + the way the yolk bolts up to the rack). That hex at the wheel bolting position must maintain the hex parallel in a horizontal state for the wheel to bolt up straight. At this point I feel the only outcome to get it perfect would be to recalibrate the steering angle sensor (which I do not have vida or a scan tool that goes into module programming :sigh: ). The other issue I forsee is the module has alignment key marks for where it expects to sit in a neutral state. Looks like I will be contacting the company I purchased from for either a replacement or accepting this is going to be slightly out lock to lock depending on their response. This thing was such a pain to get in and out the frustration in the air has become pungent...

[Tingmaestro]

I have also made the exhausted realization that even if I were to adjust the steering angle sensor, I would still be out on lock to lock rotations as this is s complete mechanical issue based on the hex being 30 degrees out from the rack being 100% centered no matter what.. with the amount of time I've spent, I should have bit the bullet on oem.. smh