I have an 02 Ram 5.9L 4x4 and about 9 months ago or so my steering rack went out on my way home from work. The seals blew out and the boots filled with fluid. On my way home today the same thing happened! The boots on the rack were inflated like ballons with air??? and fluid. The steering wheel is SUPER hard to turn. Any reason this would happen again so shortly after replacing the last one? I think it has a year warranty so hopefully they will replace it.

 

Don't buy the autozone rack. It is an epic failure. Any other replacement rack will be fine.

 

i've seen 3 rams have the PS rack get a leak on the bottom hose end in under 1 year of ownership, 2 of them being mine and my dad's. i caught em both early and put a hose clamp on the end and haven't had a failure yet.

 

The rack I put in it was a re-man from Napa. Luckily it has a lifetime warranty so its not going to cost anything. I noticed one of the lines that screw into the rack leaking a little but I don't think that had anything to do with the failure of the rack Montana Ram. I'm just wondering what caused the same thing to happen again 9 months later?

 

I'm on my third ps rack. Dodge did the both all of them for free under warranty.

 

It's fairly common, it seems like guys who have racks go, have them go more than once and others go 200,000+ miles on the original rack.

I've never trusted remanned racks, put one in my step dads 'yota about 14 years ago, he managed about 105k miles on the original, replaced with a remanned one from Advance, lasted about 18k miles and I had to replace it again...

 

My 03 (50k) rack leaked after sitting during a cold spell, actually dumped all of it's fluid in the drive without being run. My neighbor's 04 (90k) leaked after sitting for a month. Was told that seals are a problem with these truck. Was quoted $600 to replace. Spent a couple days riding around looking for a place to do the repair it stopped leaking. Told my neighbor and all he did was fill his up and it also stopped leaking. Both trucks drove normal. The rubber boots never swelled up or anything like that. Don't know, my truck has been sitting all winter and I'll check everything when i get home.

 

How you drive has a lot to do with the racks. People in MA like to change lanes as if they were taking a 90 degree left. People from RI like to slowly make their way into the other lane(without a blinker I may add).

I personally don't turn my steering wheel unless I am moving to try to save the rack in my truck.

So far it has treated me well.

 

I am overall pretty easy on my equipment and don't jam the stops but I also don't particarly nurse it either. I see you are also into bikes. I ride a old yamaha XT600 Tenere' here in the Philippines and stateside a VTX, CB1000 and my hot rod is a Moto Guzzi V10 Centauro.

 

I beat the **** out of mine rock climbing on 37's in CO, rofl. Had a small leak starting at bottom of low pressure hose at the rack, but just tightened and never leaked after. So far so good, original rack 90k miles.