Probably a remanufactured rack, and that thing you can see is a cover that hides the adjuster. Might be possible to fish it out or it might be a fit once type of job.
One side of the rack has a guide bush (the longer end) this can wear usually from other components been super worn and hammering it over thousands of miles. So adjusting the gear lash pad won't make the difference you are looking for imo. Several recent bmw have a rack where this bush wears out in less than 80k and is a very painful job to change the rack (only way to fix!).
If you get stuck find a local rack shop, somewhere that only deals with pas systems and let them look. Likely will give you an opinion for free
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