Rack & Pinion problem?!

I have a noise that would be categorized as a “clunk” to a more mild metal clunk/pop along with the occasional bottom out clunk sound, usually happening when turning and going through rain depressions in the road. I have 285/75/16’s and have ran them for 6 years, so it’s not them rubbing making the noise. I have tightened everything under the truck, some things were a little loose but I still have not found my culprit. I, along with my mechanic, have looked over all of the bearings/bushings/links etc. He seems to think it is my rack & pinion. Do you think this is likely the culprit? I have a 2005 Tacoma DC with 110,000 miles, roughly half of them are offroad. Just installed new Eibach/5100's. Thanks for your help.

 

Are you getting a lot of steering feedback? Did the symptoms start right after you suspension mods?

 

The symptoms started before the mods. The steering is maybe a little sloppy. My dad has the same truck, with a rev tek lift up front(which is what the 5100's & Eibachs replaced on mine). Anyways, I drove his for probably 60 miles on the highway and I felt like I didn't have to pay as much attention to steering. Pretty much 1 finger driving if I wanted. Maybe I am used to mine, I dunno...I do know this place told me it had to be the shocks last time....and it wasn't. Trying to avoid another $700 on something that isn't the culprit. Let me know what you think as this is foreign to me.

 

Check the steering rack mounting bolts and make sure the lower control arm alignment bolts are not loose. If everything seems tight beyond that I would jack up the truck and give the wheel a good yank back and forth to see if there is slop in the system. It's very unlikely that it is the internals of your steering rack but it could happen. Also make sure your lug nuts are torqued properly. It sounds like you've covered most of your bases but these are areas to re check before you buy a new steering rack which ultimately all you can do to trouble shoot whether the rack is bad or not.

 

I noticed today that if the truck is sitting there, turned off, with the parking brake on, I can turn the steering wheel and hear a metal noise. Only turning it an inch or so, and it only makes it going left. Just quick left right jerk motions. What could this be? Steering rack bushings? Where would I check these?

 

Get someone to run the steering wheel while you crawl under and pinpiont the cause of the noise.

 

Sounds like this may be your issue:

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/208965-steering-knock-video.html

There is a helpful vid at the end of the thread, good luck.

 

Sweet, thanks for the video! The u joint on mine looks almost new....not all rusty like that one. I climbed under and the noise doesn't seem to be coming from the intermediate shaft. Almost like it is coming from where it hooks into the steering shaft...I think?

 

I am assuming you have checked the tie rods ends?

 

I am not sure how to check the tie rod ends? They seem tight, no grease coming out anywhere, that's about all I know.

 

I just went ahead and ordered the new steering rack. It says that it comes with new inner tie rods. Should I also order new outer tie rods???

 

I don't know, depends if they are bad haha.

If you have your truck jacked up, take one of the wheels and try to turn it with your hands, similar to how the wheel would turn if you were using the steering wheel.. rotating side to side
(with the steering locked) If you can move it at all, or hear any clicks, clunks, etc. Then you are probably looking at a bad tie rod end. To find out which one, just stick your head in there and look at which one has the play.
It should be nice and tight in there if your tie rods are good.

While you are in there you can also check your ball joints too.. just turn the wheel top to bottom instead of side to side.. same idea for tightness.

 

Aww bummer. I'm actually selling a new rack. Well its a newly refurbished rack, but most of the new racks are refurbished rather than brand new from Toyota.

No worries though. I hope that takes care of your problem. Annoying knocks are straight up torture.

 

Yeah, I ordered a reman as well. I couldn't find anything that was new, so I pulled the trigger. That sucks I didn't know you were selling one. I am sure someone will take it off your hands soon. Thank you guys for your help, I will give you an update once I get everything installed.

 

Well I got the new steering rack and outer tie rods installed. Drives a lot better, feels tighter, but I still have the clunky noise going through bumps. Any other ideas?

 

I have since removed the sway bar. The sound is getting worse....When I turn now it makes a clunk clunk clunk noise. Kind of like the weight is shifting everything to the left and it's clunking on the way down. Going to take it to a different tire shop tomorrow to get a slow leak repaired and have them look around, but does anyone else have any suggestions? rzimm001, did your bushings cause a noise similar to this?

 

This.

 

I have done all of this ^^^ and just did it again....just to make sure. Everything is tight. When I make slight(going down the road, maybe turning the wheel 5%) something is rubbing. I have messed with the brake dust cover and can't seem to get rid of it. I did notice I can move my front axle on the driver side left to right ever so slightly, but definitely more than the passenger side. Anyone else??

 

Did your steering have a lot of bump steer on the freeway and feel like it just wanted to drift whatever way it felt like going before you got the rack done? My steering is really starting to piss me off on the freeway. I have to constantly watch it. theres a good amount of play.

 

Only during sharp turn out of my driveway or a parking lot. It also happened when driving over dips in the road. It sort of resembled a tick tock. Only two sounds; one when I turned and again when I straightened out. My problem is sort of an odd exception though. My LCA's are F'd up from constant offroad punishment and so the bushings became loose. If the LCA are in good condition as they most certainly would be if not abused, the bushings basically will never make noise. The truck will just ride sort of sloppy and it will be more difficult to get the alignment right.

I would HIGHLY recommend cranking the *bleep* out of those lower control arm bolts. I put over 100lbs of torque on them. In layman's terms that means get out the best ratchet you own and put a 2-3' pipe over the end of it and crank down. Once you've done that we move to plan B.