Purchased my 96 A4 knowing the steering rack was bad. Ordered a new rack, and tonight it came. Started work on removing the old one, and once I got it out realized the car had the stabilizer/damper on the factory rack, and the new one doesn't have one.

How big of a difference is this? I've seen on some threads where people have adapted the stabilizer/damper over, but I really am in no hurry to cut a perfectly good boot and hope whatever I do stays tight. If it doesn't affect the car in a serious manor, drive wise, I have no problems throwing in the new rack w/o stabilzer and having power steering.

input?

fyi: why I hate buying used, reason number 23453, liars. Guy told me all the suspension was rebuilt, including the cv axles. 3 out of 4 boots are torn. The plus side is they still have a lot of grease in them, and I'm fairly confident new boots will fix it, still stinks. On the plus side, had no lights on low beam and after searching threads was thinking I had a bad headlight switch, and it turned out both lows were just burnt out. Dodged one there.

 

Did you get the new rack from the dealer? Don't install an aftermarket steering rack on our cars.
As for the dampner if its from the dealer double check the part numbers to verify they are the same.

 

I did not go to a dealer. It would have taken twice as long to get and cost 900. I bought a rebuilt original equipment rack for $250. It has a 70k warranty, the car has 150k on it, if it makes it to 200 I'll be happy.

I'm going to put it in and see what happens. The car drives an average of 8 miles a day, city driving. From what I've read, I'm not going to notice the difference in the steering. If I'm wrong I'll just pay for it later.

 

I don't think its that terribly important either, i would go ahead and throw it in there.

 

What I"m kicking myself for is not thinking to order the new pump right away. I drove the car home 90 miles with the bad rack, I should have just expected to have a bad pump too, but for whatever reason it didn't cross my mind to order one. Not sure if I'm even going to attempt to fill it with fluid, or just wait until the new pump arrives next week. Tempted to just fill it and check for leaks on the new rack. Worse case scenario, I spend another 22 on audi p.s. fluid.

 

Yeah might as well let the crap leak out, its mineral oil anyway which means it evaporates over time so might as well buy some extra power steering fluid while you're at it.

 

That was going to be the plan, but putting the rack in turned into a huge pain in the rear. Putting the banjo bolts back into the bottom side of the rack just might be the most frustrating thing I've ever done on an automobile. Took an hour and a half to get the 19mm bolt in, and I somehow managed to lose the 22mm one after it dropped somewhere into the car. I dropped them both about 50 times and found them, but the last time I lost it. Beyond frustrating to spend 6 hours working on something, but half of that time trying to find bolts or washers.

 

you want to work on a daewoo Matiz intake manifold now that's seriously hard work[:@]

 

Yeah you think it sucks for you, the job only pays 3.2 hours flat rate to R&R!

 

3.2 Hours? Wow, hope you have better tools then I do. It only took an hour and a half or so to get it out. Once I get the banjo fittings put in I bet I could have it totally finished in under an hour.

Sad thing is I think I have the rack positioned correctly, and I could get the 22mm bolt in without to much hassle, if I only had the @#$@# thing. So much for having the Audi road ready this weekend.