steering rack removal

X

xantiaman

Member
hi all
I need to remove the steering rack from my non M E85 due to excessive wear, having a quick look on the web it looks reasonably straight forward but looking at the vehicle itself it would seem that the mounting bolts will foul the subframe before they come out all the way, has anybody any experience of performing this job that could ease the way forward for me? thanks in advance
 
thank you for the quick reply. On my car the two bolts arrowed have the leading edge of the subframe directly below them so the bolts wont come out all the way before they hit the subframe, I'm hoping that bolts will drop down enough so they are out of the threaded hole and maybe the steering rack can be rotated a bit so the bolts clear the subframe and drop out...watch this space the job will be tackled this week
 
ignore the red circles but as can be seen the bolts for the rack are above the subframe and wont drop down, I think, enough to come out
P2-3.jpg.webp
 
xantiaman said:
ignore the red circles but as can be seen the bolts the rack are above the subframe and wont drop down, I think, enough to come out
Click to expand...
That's why the second step after removing the wheels is to remove the reinforcement plate.
To be completely accurate you have to remove the undertray first, but I can see you've done that.
The reinforcement plate comes off easily. From memory I think they are 16 or 17mm bolts.

Without removing that plate you are also not going to find it very easy to get the bolts correctly torqued up either.
 
Yes take the reinforcement plate off, loads of bolts hold it on at a variety of angles. When refitting ensure they are all torqued up, had a car in that had a annoying creak when manoeuvring at slow speed, turned out some of the bolts were loose and one was missing. We assumed it was down to poor workmanship when the car had a clutch change previously at another garage. Bolts correctly torqued and creak went away.
 
done the job tonight. How easy was that!!! 1 hour 45 minutes start to finish on my back no ramp needed.
The biggest problem I had was separating the track rod ends from the hubs they were crusty.
Seriously any body who needs to do this job have a go, 8 bolts hold the strengthening plate on 2 bolts hold the rack to the subframe a pinch bolt on the column to rack joint and the 2 track rod ends and its off
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom