Steering Racks on GM W-Body

"vince" wrote in news:PsRQe.219043$HI.19004 @edtnps84:

ive been 'lubing' the interm. shaft on many different GM platforms for years now.. i dont know if GM bought 20zillion of these poorly built shafts and are just using them up or its a little joke on us consumers. GM seems to have quite a sense of humor it seems. between the piston slap issue and the popping steering shafts you have to turn your radio WAY up to get over the noises. maybe they should just install higher wattage sound systems to 'fix' there probs......BTW. ive never had a rack failure in the later models that wasnt due to collision damage......................kjun, former loyal GM customer. choices seem clear, Titan or Tundra.

Absolutely right !!!

Companies will build and sell crap as long as people will buy it.

(Love my 04 Double Cab Tundra by the way)

The intermediate steering shaft noise has nothing to do with a steering rack failure. GM has now released new steering shafts that are supposed to fix the problem without having to lube them. I guess we'll see.

Ian

Not a W body, but I've had the rack on my Malibu replaced with less than

40,000 kms.

Hi Ian. I too thought that the steering shaft noise had nothing to do with the steering rack failure but my service advisor was telling me that the rack on my 01 Impala needs replacing. It only has 27K miles and the mechanic at the dealership lubed it twice (took him 2 hours) on the second lubing and he then told the service advisor that I will experience steering fluid loss in a year or two. I have no other symptoms but front end clunking when turning at low speeds and braking. Is it not true that GM was initially replacing steering racks for the front end clunking? Vince

"vince" wrote in news:N_7Re.220742$tt5.191006@edtnps90:

not to argue. BUT, i had many dozen shafts replaced under warranty b4 GM came out with there 'lube kit' (a cork and syringe of lube). i found there 'lube kit' rather time consuming as they were going out of warranty and we had over 80 impalas that had proven that the noise would be back. i started my own program to quite them...remove hush panel, flood bottom section of u-joint with CRC lube (WD-40 would work), rotate steering wheel several times from stop to stop, re-flood same spot with white lithium grease spray, rotate wheel several times again. my 'repair' took

10 mins., replacing shaft takes me bout 45 mins. and $68 bucks for shaft.long arms help........kjun

"vince" wrote in news:N_7Re.220742$tt5.191006@edtnps90:

OOPS! i misread what part you said they werent replacing...i have not had them replace any racks either. dealer did replace left control arm once looking for the noise but that was b4 they were aware of the magnitude of problems that were to come. .......kjun