They said it'll cost $1,500 to replace the steering. I don't feel any problem with steerings.
Can you advice me on my option?
If it is just a torn boot/bellows, find a new mechanic that will replace this $9.00 part for a reasonable charge. Maybe a 1-1.5 hour job
Kind of like buying a new pair pf shoes because one lace broke ;-)
Never did it on a Lexus, but on a BMW it's a ten dollar part, plus maybe another ten dollars for the clamps. Takes about a half hour to do, you don't even need to put it up on the lift.
Some shops will tell you that you need a full alignment afterward, and if you do that then the alignment is the most expensive part of the whole process. On my cars I have just marked the tie rod end and then reassembled so the length is the same, and it's not been off enough to notice.
Probably more than that to replace the rack if the rack fails. The boots are there to keep junk out of the rack. When the boots fail, dust and dirt get in and then you need to rebuild the whole thing and it is expensive and a pain.
So fix it now before it gets to that point.
--scott
That is a lot of money. What's the blue book on the car? (not that I object to spending more than the blue book when necessary and if one likes the car, but it's still a measure of something.
Did you get a look at how torn it is?
Did he suggest the possibllity of the kind of boot that doesn't require removing parts?
Here's an examplle:
What is he going to do for 1500. Even taking out the parts, putting in a non-split boot and putting it all back in seems like it should cost less, but mmaybe not. If all he will do is replace t he boot, put in a split boot and check it every time you change the oil to see if it's still good. Should last 10 years,
Was he referring to this too. I'm sure there is a split version
How many miles do you dirve a year
I have 130K on my 2005 solara but I don't drive much
With a previous car, when a pipe in the exhaust system separated from the resonator or the other half of the pipe, and the guys in my suburbran n'hood wanted to replace the entire system (because they are all rusted together.) I drove part way into the city to a nice looking shop and he was happy to weld the two pipes together. He put on two beads, all the way around, an excellent job, and it lasted years until I got another car for other reasons.
If you want him to put on a split boot like the link above, someone who doesn't deal with rich folks all the time will be glad to do ti.
I posted a picture of it in the first post.
That's true, with a big "if". If the tie rod isn't seized up from years of driving in cold climates with salt on the road and it comes apart easily. If you run into a seized one, you may need a torch, it adds to the time, you need a new inner and outer tie rod, etc. It still should be a small fraction of the quoted $1500 though.
I would expect just about all will.
and if
You can try to do it that way, but when you're dealing with ~1/16" differences at the edges of the wheels, seems near impossible to me, which is why the shops are going the alignment route. Also, they don't want you coming back a couple thousand miles later, complaining that you owe them a new set of tires.
That's just a regular boot that requires removing the tie rod end. I've never seen a rack boot that doesn't.
I've never attempted to use one, for that reason. I wouldn't trust a split boot that glues together and doubt it will last very long. Especially for a rack boot, where doing it the right way is much less involved than doing a CV boot.
I dont' think a steering boot is filled with
That's right, it's just to keep dirt out.
It lasted long enough but it was messy, and I was worried that too much grease got out and not enough remained. But I don't think that happened. Now I might just replace a half-axle, which I did once after a collision with a curb.
There are two theories on that. One is catch it early and replace just the boot. The other is that by the time you figure out the boot is torn, dirt has likely gotten in and started to compromise it, so just drive it until it makes noise and then replace the axle. The work involved is typically less to replace the axle instead of putting a boot on. The mistake some people make is they think axles are axles, they look at some crap rebuild one or Chinese junk. If you have an OEM axle and it's fine other than the boot, I would replace the boot if possible over the cheap alternatives.
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