I jacked up the car today to check out my ca's and noticed something that ruined my day. On the driver's side, the steering rack boot was covered in grease/oil and around that area. When I'm parked, have the car on, and move the steering wheel left and right quickly, I also hear a clunking sound. Do you think the rack is already damaged to the point to which I need to replace the whole thing, or should I just get a new boot asap? I looked on ecs and the damn thing is almost $900! I swear it never ends.

 

The seals go bad all the time.m I just did the rack on my car you should try and squeeze the boot and see if you hear and feel fluid in the boot if so its bad you can get the rack for much less i got mine for $300 from a local parts store.

 

Wow, $300? That's a little more doable. Ok, I'll try that. So I'm assuming it's the power steering fluid coming out of the seal on that side then if I can hear/feel fluid? Thanks for letting me know that.

 

The best way to find where the clunking is coming from is jack the front end up and shake the wheels side to side, then up and down.

Side to side movement is usually indicative of tierod or balljoint failure. Up and down typically meas wheel bearing. I would have someone shake while you look or vice versa, so you can see what is moving around. The rack could be bad, but I see the joints going bad to make a clunk before the rack would.