S60 steering rack leak

Chuck · May 30th, 2014, 13:34

It's got to the point that it's no longer economically viable to just keep topping up the fluid in the power steering tank. It's losing 2-3 litres a week, and at £10-£15 a litre it's soon adding up to the price of a new (used) rack. Can anyone give me an idea of the time and cost of replacement? (garage labour). I don't have the time or facilities to tackle it myself (unless it's prohibitably expensive, in which case I'll make time and find facilities).

Rover Saloon · May 30th, 2014, 18:24

I can only relate from my experience replacing the rack on my 2000 S80. It was a reasonably straightforward job except that you need to drop the sub-frame at the back by removing the rear fastenings and loosening the front ones. Also, the engine mounts had to be undone so that you can jack the engine up to get the rack out. (It is sort of sandwiched between the sub-frame and the engine.)

Removal and replacement took me a full day of around 8 hours so I am guessing a garage might do it in about half the time. having said that, I hit a snag reconnecting the steering column to the rack and in the end had to remove the steering column as well. The upside of this was that I was able to free off and lubricate the bottom universal joint which had become very stiff as it's outside the cabin and gets a lot of muck thrown at it.

The Haynes manual was fairly useful but it was obvious that they hadn't done the full job as positions of bolts etc didn't match up. However it was quite helpful.

A hoist would have been incredibly useful for this job so if you can gain access to one then it's a pretty straightforward diy job.

May 30th, 2014, 13:34	#1
Chuck Junior Member Last Online: Dec 8th, 2014 15:26 Join Date: May 2014 Location: Cumbria	S60 steering rack leak It's got to the point that it's no longer economically viable to just keep topping up the fluid in the power steering tank. It's losing 2-3 litres a week, and at £10-£15 a litre it's soon adding up to the price of a new (used) rack. Can anyone give me an idea of the time and cost of replacement? (garage labour). I don't have the time or facilities to tackle it myself (unless it's prohibitably expensive, in which case I'll make time and find facilities).

May 30th, 2014, 18:24	#2
Rover Saloon Senior Member Last Online: Jan 16th, 2017 09:02 Join Date: May 2007 Location: Ipswich	I can only relate from my experience replacing the rack on my 2000 S80. It was a reasonably straightforward job except that you need to drop the sub-frame at the back by removing the rear fastenings and loosening the front ones. Also, the engine mounts had to be undone so that you can jack the engine up to get the rack out. (It is sort of sandwiched between the sub-frame and the engine.) Removal and replacement took me a full day of around 8 hours so I am guessing a garage might do it in about half the time. having said that, I hit a snag reconnecting the steering column to the rack and in the end had to remove the steering column as well. The upside of this was that I was able to free off and lubricate the bottom universal joint which had become very stiff as it's outside the cabin and gets a lot of muck thrown at it. The Haynes manual was fairly useful but it was obvious that they hadn't done the full job as positions of bolts etc didn't match up. However it was quite helpful. A hoist would have been incredibly useful for this job so if you can gain access to one then it's a pretty straightforward diy job.

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