Steering Racks - 1997 Passat

It appears that my Passat is leaking power steering fluid from the rack and pinion. Any one have any experiences with rebuilt racks? Good, bad, ugly, etc. Any recommendations? As always, thanks for your help.

Don,

I swapped out the rack in my '96 this past summer. I bought a rebuilt rack and the 1st rebuild was, unfortunately, defective and I had to yank it back out and replace it again.

The 2nd replacement works fine. The extra hours of wrenchwork was not fun but I was gettin faster at it.

I am not sure if it was a fluke or an overall low batting average with such racks. I will check the paperwork at home and get the brand name for you.

If you choose to accept the challenge, consider rebuilding the entire front end at the same time. Your control arm bushing are probably toast, especially the rearward ones.

Thanks for the input. Please let me who remanufactured yours. Also was yours a TRW or ZF brand and what was the cost?
How about warranty? Thanks Again. Don

Don,
The rebuilder was MALVAL and they warrant materials & workmanship for "lifetime". Cost about $230 and there was no hassle about returns. Adirondack handled the warranty very well and put me in touch with the MALVAL people to describe the symptoms. Mine was a TRW.
Doing the install twice was not fun. I am not sure if a garage installs the unit, the labor would be covered or not. I can fax the warranty info to you if you need. drop me an e-mail.
Chuck
For those newbie lurkers out there - Don't use anything but VW or the correct Pentosin fluid in your power steering system. I ruined mine with Valvoline SynPower, don't ask me where my head was /images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

How do you determine ZF or TRW?

or are they interchangeable?

IF so, is there a "preferred" replacement?

Mine isn't leaking, but I'm assuming that, or the pump has failed.

The power steering is minimal and erratic at best. Is there a way to test the pump, or do you replace that first, since it's likely easier?

The ZF rack was in VR6 Passats, TRW in TDIs. Not easily interchangeable. If I remember the ZF has a "waffle" case and the TRW is smooth.

There are barely any racks of any flavor around for these cars any longer. My B4 has a slight steering bias where the car wants to go right when the PS fluid is cold. Alignment is perfect. I found a Precision rebuilt rack, it was the next to last one our supplier had. Our other supplier, AAE (now owned by CRP/Rein), no longer rebuilds them. At this point you're going to have to see what remainder stock folks have available.

i had thought i heard the trw racks were for north america, perhaps the zf racks were for europe? just thought i had heard that.
i looked in the book. the way i told i had a trw rack is all the way underneath the rear of the rack the trw has a big hex/allen looks like a possible drain, book says its an adjustment. the zf is different. maybe a smaller adjustment bolt-type, with a bigger locking inner 'screw' nut type, thingie. the inner big locking 'screw' is tightened so smaller bolt-type of adjustment is tight, doesnt move. if i recall thats how to tell them.

did you check fluid? change fluid at anytime? see my topic for some info on doing this, and my post on steps to swap fluids here.
a pump will usually make noise if it 'blows'. check for belt and tightness of belt 1st.
id swap in new fluid first, flush in new fluid good, new belt, good tension, while putting new fluid in rotate pump pulley, by hand, at the same time have help turn steering wheel lock-to-lock. check fluid that comes out.

Several years ago I had my B4V steering rack rebuilt by a local San Diego rebuilder with excellent results and a much more reasonable price than I found on the internet.


Now, I know you are a long way from San Diego - but check out local rebuilders, you might be surprised to find great results.