Ok guys, so I took the subaru to meineke today to find out what the heck was going on with my car. I've been getting some rather unsettling popping noises in the front of the car when I turn or go over bumps.
The guys at Meineke said that the rack and pinion was bad and needed to be replaced. They showed me two INNER boots that were ripped bad, NOT the CV joints...those boots are good. So are they correct?
Those are inner tie rods. Rack and pinion is your steering rack. The steering shaft has a gear on the end of it that sits in a row of teeth on a shaft in the rack like a gear that's been unrolled and laid flat. When you turn your wheel, the gear meshes with the row of teeth and pushes the shaft with the teeth either left or right. Screwed into each end of that shaft are replaceable links called inner tie rods. Screwed onto the other end of those inner tie rods are outer tie rods that attach the rack to the steering knuckle that the road wheel is attached to. The end at the knuckle has a ball joint that allows the tie rod to adjust to the knuckle's movement with the suspension and steering angle. The end connected to the inner tie rod is located and secured with a nut on the threads of the inner tie rod so that your steering angle can be adjusted during alignment.
To check what these guys are telling you (which is probably the inner tie rods as the torn boots allow all kinds of shit to get in there, but could be the rack for the same reason), jack up the car and pull on the wheel side to side. Check each side of the car. The wheel should be tight, with no free play. If the wheel moves freely even a small amount, see where the movement is coming from. It will either be at the end where the torn boot is (inner tie rod), or the balljoint end of the outer tie rod at the knuckle (but that is not what is referred to as the actual balljoint. To check that, try to shake the wheel up and down. If you feel any looseness, look at where the knuckle attaches to the lower control arm and you should see movement there. That means you have a bad balljoint). After checking both wheels and you don't see anything loose, it's possible you have a worn link or two for the antiroll bar. When they wear, they can cause a kind of popping noise. An easy replacement but, unlike the other possible problems, nothing necessary to fix. Barring that being an issue, you might have a bad rack, but that sounds the least likely by your description. Does the steering wheel turn freely or is there a kind of sticking resistance somewhere in its travel? If there is, that might be the rack.
For all possibilities but the antiroll bar links you will also need an alignment, but at the least, you will need to replace those boots before they lead to a bigger problem. I would do the inner tie rods at the same time even if there isn't necessarily any play in them as they are likely to die soon due to the torn boots and if you're doing the labor to replace the boots and realign the car, you might as well put on new inner tie rods. Bad tie rods can kill your tires prematurely and make the car handle in an unsafe manner (especially over rutted roads). If they went completely, the wheel on the failing side could completely turn all the way out very quickly and cause a serious crash. It's not common to get to that point, but that's the ultimate realization of a tie rod failure.
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Oh yeah, the antiroll bar link is just out of the left frame on your second picture. It attaches the bar that runs from one side of the car to the other that's under the steering rack to the control arm.
Midnight in a Perfect World on Amazon or order anywhere. The first book in a quartet chronicling the rise of a man from angry criminal to philanthropist. Midnight... is a distopic noirish novel featuring 'Duchess', a modified 1990 Subaru Legacy wagon.
Turns out its a wheel bearing/hub that is bad on the right front wheel. I took it in yesterday, and they showed me the play in the wheel when they shook it. Moved back and forth really badly. YIKES! Anyhoo, here's to another freakin $410 that we cannot afford to get fixed right now:(
I wouldn't pay over $300 for a wheel bearing replacement. If that is what they are trying to charge, they are either taking advantage of you, don't want to do it, or don't know what they are doing.
Its not just the bearing they're replacing tho, the hub is bad too...and it needs alignment. I don't have a choice, it has to be done. I guess I can call around and see if I can find a better price...
Does anyone have a spindle assembly they can sell for cheaper? They're not trying to sell you the alignment as part of the job, are they? If you need one independently, that's fine, but the bearing job, even if replacing the whole steering knuckle, shouldn't require one.
Midnight in a Perfect World on Amazon or order anywhere. The first book in a quartet chronicling the rise of a man from angry criminal to philanthropist. Midnight... is a distopic noirish novel featuring 'Duchess', a modified 1990 Subaru Legacy wagon.
What are they saying is wrong with the hub? I could only see needing to replace it if it's cracked. Sounds to me like they want the easy way out of replacing the bearing by throwing in a new hub with the bearing already pressed in.
I could see needing an alignment even after replacing the hub. You're going to have to adjust the camber back into spec. You could probably just mark the camber bolts but eh, I dunno.
I don't know, he didn't say. Just said the wheel bearings and hub were bad. I should ask him. I will call him tomorrow and find out, he's not in the shop today.
Ask them to keep & show you the old hub... They do get damaged; I left a bad wheel bearing running too long and it really beat up on the hub bearing surface. New one was about $150, as I recall it.
Yeah, the price on my quote list says 129.95. I am going to have them show me the hub so that I can know it was bad lol. I've been running this car on this since we bought it, its just gotten worse...so yeah, its quite possible that the hub is shot now.
