- 03/04/2014
- 2 Min Read
- By: Uilleam Ross
Repair Your Volvo XC Steering Rack the Easy Way
One of the interesting aspects of owning an older Volvo, Mercedes, or BMW, is that you can routinely exceed the expected lifespan of some parts that “normal” ownership never sees. In addition, if you live in an area like I do, with constant sea air and frequent use of road salt in the winter, these conditions accelerate the “normal” corrosive destruction of many components.
The other day as I was driving my '02 Volvo XC with 350K total kms around town, I started getting groans from the steering every time I went around corners. Once stopped, I found my power steering tank empty and a growing puddle of fluid under the driver's side of the car. Considering the age of the car and the fact that my power steering lines are all original, I expected to find one of the low pressure lines that run between the rack and the pump had failed. In my experience, these lines either fail close to where the rubber portion of the line meets the aluminum or steel hard-line or the hard-line itself cracks from vibration.
In this case, there were no signs of these lines being bad. To Volvo's credit, they were actually in pretty good shape. There were also no signs of fluid working pass the rack seals or flowing out the rack boots, but there was an entire system worth of fluid flowing down the underside of the car. Finally, after squeezing my fingers up and around where the rack's high pressure lines (those lines that transfer fluid from the steering pinion housing on top of the rack, to the piston locations on each end of the rack) meet the pinion housing, I felt fluid. I also felt a rusty and now broken steel line.
Amongst all the auto manufacturers, Volvo has always been great at using a corrosion-resistant bronze-copper alloy for their brake lines. They do not use that same material for other fluid lines, like the power steering high pressure lines. These are steel lines coated in some type of corrosion-resistant coating and are located in what amounts to a blind space where they see a lot of salty slush and little air flow. Once I had removed the rack from the car, I found the steering rack's high pressure lines in a dismal condition, where they literally fell off the rack when touched.
This problem was one that was new to me.
Despite owning 45 cars before this one, I have never had steering rack issues of any kind. Speaking to some of my local mechanic buddies and contacts, I found that in this area of the world, steering rack or box hard-line failures due to rust are fairly common regardless of make and the common solution is to just replace the rack or box. Like many of the components used on a car, Volvo has two suppliers for their steering racks, ZF of Germany and SMI of France. For this car, the availability of new racks is not that apparent, as most listings show a rebuild and that rebuild is based upon a ZF rack with prices ranging from about $400 to $1100.
Junk yard locally-sourced racks were priced at about $300. As luck would have it, my rack was SMI and by having that rack, replacing it with a rebuild would have required all new low pressure lines (about $300 total) as the connection threads are different between the two rack makers. ZF uses a push-connect type pipe fitting whereas SMI uses DIN bubble flare fittings (like brake pipe fittings). So to replace the rack, I was looking at a $800 to $1400 repairs just in parts and there was nothing really wrong with the rack itself. Although I do not consider myself cheap, there had to be a better and cheaper way to go.
A close examination of the SMI rack's pipe threads revealed all of them to be OK and of a 12x1 mm DIN bubble flare configuration (in comparison, Volvo brake lines are 10mm). The configuration of the lines were also not too bad, in that they were mostly straight with the tightest bends up by the pinion housing. Volvo does list replacement high pressure lines ( at about $130 at the local dealer), but only for the ZF rack. The purchase of a tubing bender, a DIN bubble flare tool, and two 48in lengths of tubing with 12x1 DIN fittings at the auto parts store set me back $75. The last time I bent metal tubing was back many years ago but a slow go at it and constant checking against the old pieces as templates (taped together with duct tape due to their condition) produced very usable replacement lines. As they say, installation is the reverse of removal, but I added a liberal dose of lanolin-based rust-proofing to the rack and lines to extend their lives.
After about 10K kms, this repair is still working perfectly and I see no reason to not get at least another year or two out of the rack if not longer. I have to ask the question though, as to why a repair of this sort is hindered by the lack of the “cheaper” option?
Why replace a perfectly good rack when the high-pressure lines were only $20 worth of material from the auto parts store? And in this area, these types of expensive parts replacement are routine. All totaled I was out a day of labour to do the job, $20 worth of lines, $55 worth of tools that I didn't have (and I normally don't count that cost as these tools will be there the next time I need them) and $60 worth of fluid, versus a minimum of $800 for the “more common” repair. I consider it a victory for the DIY mechanic.
What was the most costly “simple” repair you have ever encountered?
About the Author: Uilleam Ross
Uilleam (Bill) Ross is a 60 year-old retired 30-year veteran of the IT industry and a 45-year car guy. Living in Western Head, Nova Scotia, he now indulges his passions for landscape photography and cars, principally Volvos and Land Rovers.
