At 60k, I had tie rods, engine mounts and a few other things replaced to recover that "new car" feel. IMHO it was a total success and well worth the money.
Now I'm at 140k and it feels like it's time again.
But I wonder if there's one more joker in the deck: the steering gearbox.
I had it tightened at around 130k and that took some of the looseness out of the system, but immediately afterwards it just felt weird - like it was binding a little bit. Dunno if I'm just used to it now or it loosened up with a few weeks use, but I don't notice it anymore.
What I do notice is that the vehicle's steering just doesn't feel acceptably precise. It's also much worse in crosswinds than it was when new.
Does anybody have an opinion on steering gear boxes once they've worn to the point where they need tightening? Is tightening one up the same as replacing it with a new one function-wise - or is there some loss there - maybe from changed geometry within the workings of it?
I'm thinking of replacing the thing when I get the tie rods/pitman arms/whatever done soon, but I don't want to throw my money away if there's no diff between a tightened up box with 140k on it and a new box.