Steering Rack Slider Replacement
11-30-2018
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Steering Rack Slider Replacement
Hello everyone, recently replaced my steering rack slider and wanted to share my experience.
The issue:
About a year ago I started noticing that my '02 Civic would wander a little bit driving down the road. It never felt like the steering had slop, initially just felt a little weird. After about 6 months of ignoring it hoping it would go away I finally checked over all the suspension. Found a bad passenger strut mount (only 1 year old Autozone part, classic) and also both sway bar links were bad (again, 1 year old Autozone part). Replaced those but didn't notice any improvements. Ignored the issue for a few more months until it started to get a little scary. Going over slightly wavy sections of the road the car wanted to go all over the place, accelerating hard had a similar effect. Checked over all the suspension again, with the front tires off the ground I couldn't feel any unnatural movement in either front wheel, I finally checked the steering rack. I grabbed in the center of the rack right where the tie bars meet and tried to move it up and down. I had about 3/8" of movement, there should be none!
The cause:
I blame this on the car being lowered and age. I bought it nearly 8 years ago with 156k miles, it was already lowered on Eibach Sportline springs. It now has 285k miles and the same springs. When lowered the tie rods are no longer parallel with the steering rack so when you turn a vertical force is now being applied onto the rack. Eventually this causes excess wear of the little plastic steering rack slider.
How is this fixed?
Took me and a buddy maybe 45 minutes to do. Instead of making a DIY I'll just post some links to other DIYs. Neither of these are for a Civic with a D17 but the steering racks are almost identical. First link does not require the steering rack to be removed. The second link requires the removal but also cleans and re-greases the rack.
-https://hondakarma.com/guides/replac...-the-car.1859/
-https://motoiq.com/project-ep3-civic...g-motor-works/
What replacement part?
I personally used the one from SHG Motor Sports. Quite a bit more expensive but much more durable.
-OEM ($22.63): part number 06538-S5A-H01
-K System Pro ($71.60): http://k-system.pro/en/product/steer...ck-slider-ep3/
-SHG Motor Sports (price $70): http://shgmotorworks.com/shop#!/Stee...tegory=2708045
After replacing the slider the car no longer wanders all over the road, it feels so much better. This may not be the cause of your issue but it is definitely worth checking into!
The issue:
About a year ago I started noticing that my '02 Civic would wander a little bit driving down the road. It never felt like the steering had slop, initially just felt a little weird. After about 6 months of ignoring it hoping it would go away I finally checked over all the suspension. Found a bad passenger strut mount (only 1 year old Autozone part, classic) and also both sway bar links were bad (again, 1 year old Autozone part). Replaced those but didn't notice any improvements. Ignored the issue for a few more months until it started to get a little scary. Going over slightly wavy sections of the road the car wanted to go all over the place, accelerating hard had a similar effect. Checked over all the suspension again, with the front tires off the ground I couldn't feel any unnatural movement in either front wheel, I finally checked the steering rack. I grabbed in the center of the rack right where the tie bars meet and tried to move it up and down. I had about 3/8" of movement, there should be none!
The cause:
I blame this on the car being lowered and age. I bought it nearly 8 years ago with 156k miles, it was already lowered on Eibach Sportline springs. It now has 285k miles and the same springs. When lowered the tie rods are no longer parallel with the steering rack so when you turn a vertical force is now being applied onto the rack. Eventually this causes excess wear of the little plastic steering rack slider.
How is this fixed?
Took me and a buddy maybe 45 minutes to do. Instead of making a DIY I'll just post some links to other DIYs. Neither of these are for a Civic with a D17 but the steering racks are almost identical. First link does not require the steering rack to be removed. The second link requires the removal but also cleans and re-greases the rack.
-https://hondakarma.com/guides/replac...-the-car.1859/
-https://motoiq.com/project-ep3-civic...g-motor-works/
What replacement part?
I personally used the one from SHG Motor Sports. Quite a bit more expensive but much more durable.
-OEM ($22.63): part number 06538-S5A-H01
-K System Pro ($71.60): http://k-system.pro/en/product/steer...ck-slider-ep3/
-SHG Motor Sports (price $70): http://shgmotorworks.com/shop#!/Stee...tegory=2708045
After replacing the slider the car no longer wanders all over the road, it feels so much better. This may not be the cause of your issue but it is definitely worth checking into!
The following users liked this post:
D17VTECPOWER (03-03-2022)
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