98 Avalon - Is DIY rack replacement easy enough? $900 to replace OK price?

[Mote]

Hey there - The steering rack on my 98 Avalon is leaking. Local shop wants $900 to replace it. I need to research more but that seems high.

I was searching the forums and didn't get a good feel for how difficult it is to do the work. The only post I found was the guy spent 15 hours, and used all his might to loosen bolts.

I can get the car up on jack stands in my garage. I have some hand tools, a torque wrench etc. I've replaced brakes and other simple enough things. Anyone have a feel for how difficult the job is?

Thanks!

[fourwheeler]

I did mine two years ago. It took myself and another guy 6 hours to change out the rack and pinion and power steering pump as they were both leaking. Make sure you have another set of hands to help you hold or adjust parts as needed.

$900 might be high, but the new or rebuilt rack is around $250 already. Might not hurt to get a couple of other quotes from other shops in the area. If they base the charge on parts cost and book install time, the only variances would be the markup on the parts and the shop labor rate. Good luck.

[fourwheeler]

I did mine two years ago. It took myself and another guy 6 hours to change out the rack and pinion and power steering pump as they were both leaking. Make sure you have another set of hands to help you hold or adjust parts as needed.

$900 might be high, but the new or rebuilt rack is around $250 already. Might not hurt to get a couple of other quotes from other shops in the area. If they base the charge on parts cost and book install time, the only variances would be the markup on the parts and the shop labor rate. Good luck.

[chuckoff]

Depends on your mechanical ability and what tools you have. You need line wrenches for the fittings and a big breaker bar to loosed the rack bolts. It ain't easy, but not super hard. Shop labor rate time is 3 hours. Get a Maval rack.
The guy that spent 15 hrs. probably had no business working on his own car.

[cutlassman]

Mote, if you give it a shot, keep us posted. I have a '98 Avalon with a rack that is leaking terribly. I have a new rack and new tie rod ends purchased, but haven't mustered the mental strength to tackle the project. I did a a rack on a different car last winter that wiped me out!

[fourwheeler]

cutlassman, from what I remember in doing the job, disconnect the outer tie rods, sway bar links and mounts, steering shaft can be disconnected by using a large pry bar and pounding the knuckle off from the top, disconnect hoses and clamps on the rack and it slides out to the left. Assembly is the reverse. I'm sorry I can't remember if I had to disconnect the O2 sensor on the firewall side or not. Seems like I did but can't say for sure.

Hope it helps.

[cutlassman]

Thanks for the info. I'll probably tackle the job soon. I put a new radiator in last weekend and that went smooth - I'll hope for the same with the rack & pinion. If I don't have to drop the subframe, I'm thrilled!

[techtalk]

Originally Posted by Mote

Hey there - The steering rack on my 98 Avalon is leaking. Local shop wants $900 to replace it. I need to research more but that seems high.

I was searching the forums and didn't get a good feel for how difficult it is to do the work. The only post I found was the guy spent 15 hours, and used all his might to loosen bolts.

I can get the car up on jack stands in my garage. I have some hand tools, a torque wrench etc. I've replaced brakes and other simple enough things. Anyone have a feel for how difficult the job is?

Thanks!

Mote,

I helped one of my old college buddies replace the steering rack on his Avalon not too long ago and it was a pretty intensive job. We both possess intermediate mechanical skills and collectively own a decent amount of tools; with that said, it took us about 5 1/2 hours to accomplish the entire job. It's always a sagacious idea to organize all of your parts and tools before you start working on your car and to place all of the removed parts in an orderly fashion so as to make the re-installation process go by more smoothly.

$900 doesn't seem that far-fetched but it is certainly on the higher side of things. Does this price include parts or is it merely a labour charge? If I remember correctly, the dealership wanted to charge me an INSANE price for the parts..it was somewhere in the neighbourhood of $900! I ended up buying the steering part for way cheaper at toyotapartseast.com.

One more thing, I would highly recommend obtaining as many DIY write-ups as possible. Check out Chilton's website and look up guides for this replacement job. It never hurts to consult as many resources as possible