i am buying a 99 a4 1.8t with a leaking steering rack. it has not been driven much (besides the test drive and probably back to my house) with the bad rack, and is not leaking so much that you can't stop frequently and replace the fluid lost. i was wondering what the chances were that the ps-pump might be bad and have to be replaced as well. also anyone diy a rack replacment? was looking for some opinions on the amount of work involved. thanks ~chas

 

If you ask you shall Recieve

http://www.audiworld.com/tech/misc-40.shtml

For future refrence
http://www.audidiy.com/a4platform.html

 

yep, you gotta replace the whole thing, i had to on mine.

 

yea, i read the writeup on audiworld, looks simple enough just wondering because i have gotten some mixed reviews on the difficulty of the job. i was hoping that i might be able to get away with just replacing the rack but i have heard that the whole thing should be done even just to be safe.

 

do you know if the rack was ever completely starved of hydraulic fluid? or what the lowest level the fluid has ever been? and how long it has been driven at thost points?

if it's just a minor leak coming out of the inner tie rod ends, then you shouldn't need to replace the pump. just the rack. it's a pretty easy swap. took me,mybrother, and my bentley about 2 hours with a break. went to do the alignment too and it was spot on thanks to my revoluiton counting skills while changing out the tie rods