Steering Rack Jumped a Tooth

[dmcent63]

So, I’m coming home from work Saturday and was unable to avoid a pothole on a side road. Didn’t affect the toe-in but it rotated the steering wheel to the right. Now I’m throwing a bunch of codes. One of which is C0051-28 steering wheel position sensor. Now in all fairness, I got hit a few years ago from the side. Directly on the wheel. Bent the tie-rod. What I don’t know is was the rack weakened from that impact or are they just wimpy in general.

 

[Jeepwalker]

I'd get your suspension looked at by an alignment shop, or a 'good' dealer ...with one of their better mechanics on it (not their beginners). Something's got to be bent or shifted. Maybe the intermediate shaft is slightly twisted, or a ball joint nylon bushing just broke. There are a lot of links and attachment points on the intermediate steering shaft that could shift. Also where the rack attaches to the vehicle is another place to inspect. For example, rack mounts in one of my other vehicles, are know to wear bushings prematurely (I replaced them on my H3) ...so any rack bushings should be closely inspected.

It's hard to imagine how a rack could 'jump a tooth' and still work or not 'feel' strange in the steering. The cast aluminum case of the rack one would think would 'crack' and would therefore be leaking fluid, or involve a damaged or broken tooth that you'd feel turning the wheel. Or, wose yet, it could be the shaft above the pinion that is twisted (and weak enough to possibly 'break'). You could measure the side to side travel of the rack, then put it in the center, and see where the wheel is. Then inspect the intermediate shafts/joints to see if the u-joints line up, for starters.

But if it *did* somehow jump a tooth, better get it replaced. For safety if nothing else. You don't want any fragments to jam the rack when you're going down the road. Or if the shaft above the pinion is twisted the hardened metal could be crystalized and possibly weak enough to break. If any of those seem to be the case, I'd replace the rack. It should make your steering feel 'tighter'. BTW, if you replace the rack, consider replacing the intermediate steering shaft. With all the joints and connections, they are often the source of 'sloppy-feeling' steering. When I replaced the one in my H3 it was like brand new steering!





Steering rack example (not specifically 2016 Ram):

 

[dmcent63]

Jeepwalker, I tend to agree with you. It was an alignment shop that told me it had jumped and that it now, from center turns two full turns to lock going right and two and a half turns to the left. The truck has less than 50k on it so it shouldn’t be worn. There is nothing that can be felt in the steering and I’ve been driving it like this for a week. I did get hit directly on the rim in ‘18 by someone who ran a red light. It folded up the tie rod but now I’m thinking it must have damaged the rack then. The the service department of the dealer that sold me the truck won’t even take my phone call. I made an appointment with the next Ram dealer north for this week. The extended warranty may actually pay for itself now.

 

[Jeepwalker]

Years ago me and a buddy used to buy 'rebuilders' from insurance companies. We had a 1st gen Dodge ram we rebuilt, and my buddy kept and drove it for several yrs. It was hit and the front and the steering box output shaft was bent. That's a pretty robust shaft. You could see the splines were 'warped'. I advised him to change it, and he was going to ...and he never did. It wasn't his DD, and didn't put a lot of miles on it. But to me it was a major safety issue. Yeah, a pretty hard shaft 'can' bend. Sometime bad things do happen to good people, and they look back and say, "I shouldda done this or that". So if yours was hit hard enough to 'skip a tooth' it could also have bent a shaft to damaged something else too.

I see a reman steering rack on RockAuto is $525. They don't have any Mopar ones in stock at the moment, so I can't see the price. It would be about an additional $350 to replace the intermediate shafts with new Mopar ones. Can you turn it into your insurance as a replacement? Describe the issue ....or that you hit a pothole (what ever works best)? I would consider that a safety issue. If the insurance would pay for it (w/o raising your rates -- Act of God), then I'd get all that stuff replaced at once. It's kind of a pain to replace just the intermediate shaft by itself, much easier when either the column or the rack is removed. They probably have to drop the column anyway. So if you can do it under insurance, it would be even better.

Um, make sure the shop doing any steering work properly SECURES the steering wheel before beginning work, so they don't inadvertantly damage the clock-spring inside the column (common rookie goof-up mistake that you want to avoid). I would mention that to an alignment shop who'll probably have their first year guy doing the work. B/c if that happens you at least put them on notice and they can disassemble the column and replace the spring assembly on their dime.

 

[dmcent63]

I’ve never been one to screw with safety items. It’s a
Ram dealer so I expect
That they’ll want to sell everything they can…especially under the extended warranty coverage. I did check rock auto earlier in the week and the mopar reman rack was $1281 + 250 core. I’m sure dealer list of going to be much higher. When I got out of the auto repair shop as a mechanic, ECM was still in its infancy compared to today. I do as much as possible myself but many repairs simply can’t justify the needed equipment for a home shop. Besides, without the factory repair manuals I’m kind of hamstrung. Who need a
Chilton manual to tell you to see a professional.

 

[Jeepwalker]

Replacing the rack is straight forward unbolt/bolt-on, work. Just keep the steering wheel in it's straight-away location (tie it with a rope/bungee to the brake pedal or seat track so it doesn't rotate) and don't rotate it as you do the work. At least not much. I don't know if there's a place for a locking steering 'pin' ...some do. But I've just always secured the steering wheel and haven't had problems.

Depending on how far it's off, and what the previous shop did to compensate the steering angle, you 'might' have to reset the steering angle via a scanner, but if you know someone with a Snap-On scanner, they should be able to do it. Under normal instances, replacing the rack is pretty straight forward work. Of course you'll probably need to adjust your truck's tow. I adjust my own vehicle's tow all the time. You can do that with a tape measure, or ...I made a make-shift bar for it.

Another reason to change the rack, is generally racks are machined to 'crown' at center and be tighter in the center than off-center. But I don't know 100% if Ram's are that way. Probably only the engineers would know that.

You could always buy the rack off RockAuto ...then go to a dealer and tell them your neighbor/kid/mechanic was going to install it but can't due to whatever reason ...and can they install it for you? They won't be able to warranty it though.

 

[dmcent63]

I have a Wednesday appointment at a dealer in Stuart to look into it under the extended warranty. I’ll post what comes of that visit.

 

[Dan90]

If it's the 2016 in your tag, you have electric power steering. Tie rods are meant to bend before the rest of the system fails. Think of them as a fuse.

Personally I would be surprised if you skipped a rack tooth. Modern EPS is generally belt driven inside the unit via an electric motor, hence electric power steering.

Older EPS units have to go through a learning process to understand their center. Perhaps what happened is you actually skipped a BELT tooth or few and the unit is confused where it's center is. The dealership knows the process to "re-learn" this center.

Either way it's under warranty and the dealership is going to look at it. If it were me, based on your current situation and the impact it experienced previously, I would probably push to have a new unit installed... not on your dime so win win.

Here is a good write up about steering angle sensors:

Ready. Reset. Go. Steering Angle Sensor Calibration.

Steering angle sensors (SAS) are nothing new. In fact, they’ve been around since the early 1990’s. With advances in Electronic Stability Control (ESC) systems, however, the need to reset them after routine maintenance has only recently become a necessity. Whilst this will add another step to...

www.delphiautoparts.com

 

[dmcent63]

Dan90, Thank you for you input. It’s an early ‘16 built to order of which I took delivery in early January’16. The accident in ‘18 was a hard hit parallel to the rack. When I hit a pothole I was doing about 40mph. The only thing that changed was the steering wheel position. Toe in is within tolerance as it doesn’t pull. I understand older steering units as there is continuous mechanical link regardless of assist. I guess I need to surf the internet for an illustration of this type of system to get a deeper understanding.

 

[Jeepwalker]

There's also the possibility that during the 2018 accident the top of the tooth on the rack was 'chipped' or partially damaged (it would probably take 2x teeth). The broken part of a tooth is sitting on the bottom of the rack tube not hurting anything ....and the gear teeth mesh 'enough' that it hasn't affected normal driving. However, when you hit the pothole the rack teeth happened to be in the 'right' spot and with enough force was able to push the teeth past each other.

Obviously this is pure conjecture, but not totally out of the realm of possibility if the initial accident put as much force on the rack as you suggest. If you DO get the rack replaced, it would be interesting to tear it down and inspect the rack just to 'see'.

Owners hit potholes all the time on these trucks, and off-road them in serious off-road conditions with way oversized tires (sometimes 35" or more), and farmers, oil workers, miners, drive them over terrain where they sometimes run into unseen big rocks, stumps etc. I've personally been in a truck where we hit a bit rock under some tall grass and the whole truck jumped way the heck up, passengers almost hit their heads on the roof! Guys jump curbs, wives slam into parking berms, things like that. Happens every day. These impacts put a lot of stress on steering racks and you don't hear of them 'skipping teeth' very often, if ever. They're designed to handle a lot of stress so people don't get killed. So, somethings going on with yours that doesn't seem normal ...by hitting a pothole unless this was some serious pothole.

 

[dmcent63]

I want to thank everyone who has responded and offered their thoughts on my issue. It has allowed me to see the potential possibilities of what may have happened from perspectives beyond my own imagination.

With that said, the results of the dealers initial evaluation is they say it’s the intermediate shaft. I have another appointment this morning for the repair. Now riddle me this, are the components in these assemblies not keyed? I get that these components are designed to compress and collapse on impact but one would expect them to hold their alignment. This is the first vehicle I’ve ever owned with electric assist. You would think the direction of that force would be only directed towards down stream and not in the opposite direction towards the operator. The felt impact at the wheel was really not that great. I’ve have experience with conventional box, hydraulic assist where the ram and actuating valve are mounted on the steering linkage and those forces can be transmitted in reverse under a malfunction or misalignment.

I am going to ask for the old shaft. If they just dispose of it anyway, I can disassemble it and prove or disprove the diagnosis.

I’ll follow up with the results of the service.

 

[dmcent63]

Here’s a good one, just got a call from the dealer and they wanted me to authorize an alignment. They changed the intermediate shaft but the wheels still off….my reply “if you changed the shaft and the wheels in the same place, doesn’t that suggest it’s the rack? Otherwise why not just align it in the first place…”. Blank stare…..response, have to do a before an alignment before we can make that call…

this is why I despise going to a dealer.

 

[Jeepwalker]

Ask them to center the steering wheel (in the middle position of the L->R rotations of the steering wheel). Then go back and measure the rack movement once the wheel is centered. At least they know you're on them and not just some schmuck who'll just drive away never give a 2nd thought.

 

[dmcent63]

I’m going to make the trip up there in the morning. Ive requested the old parts and I’ll check for center of travel in regards to the rack. That should be simple enough check.

 

[dmcent63]

Now I looked this over pretty well and I can’t identify any signs of stress, either in the joint or the shaft sockets. The advisor kept trying to convince my that it was the joint, but all I could smell was ********. I can only assume that an alignment took care of it as the wheel is straight and the rack is centered. I guess they simply needed a part to pump up the invoice for the warranty policy. I paid what I would have had to pay for an alignment anywhere so I guess that all I care about is I’m code free and driving straigh. No warm and fuzzy here though.

 

[Jeepwalker]

Thanks for the update. I tend to agree with you. Tat intermediate shaft looks pretty robust. Does your tk now have the same turning angles L & right? You ought to inspect the tie rod ends to see if the L & R sides have about the same length on each side of the adjusting threads. Out of curiousity ..and in case there is a downstream issue.

 

[dmcent63]

Good suggestion to inspect the length of the tie rods. I did count the turns of the wheel, lock to lock and it’s equal. I'm off during the week so I’ll get under it then and get some more accurate measurements of the tie rods. Update to follow

 

[dmcent63]

Sorry that I never followed up with info regarding measurements of the tie rod ends after the repair. Weather and unrelated issues that came in higher on the importance scale. Now having electrical issues. Apparently some kind of canbus communications issue. Among the list of accessories that will no function are a/c, power locks and window, stereo and backup camera. Six years old in January, the buyers remorse is starting to kick in…

 

[Jeepwalker]

Sorry for the electrical woes. Thanks for the follow-up. Sooo, to put the final word on the steering repair, does your truck steering, as it is now, have the same number of turns left and right?

You might want to start a new thread on the recent electrical problems. Maybe someone here can shed some light based on personal experience. In the meantime, I know this sounds stupid, but I would for sure clean the battery terminal connections and the engine/body grounds, if you haven't already. And wouldn't hurt to have a part's store load test your battery. The reason is because all electrical signal path goes through the grounds. Modern vehicles have many grounds all over the wiring harness and in the cab here and there. But they all rely on the main battery connections. If nothing else at least you can cross them off the list.

 

[dmcent63]

Thanks for the reply. First, from the drivers seat…same number of turns from center left and two right.

On the battery, new gel unit less than six months old. Truck just turned 50k so is pretty clean. I was curious if a stuck relay would cause, but I’ll put all that in a new thread.