A guy I work with has a '03 Ram SLT Hemi 4x4 and his rack and pinion went out last week. The stealer ship had it towed in and fixed it under warranty. Here's where it gets interesting...they told him the failure was due to not letting the truck warm up before he drove it??? That just doesn't make sense to me...anyone ever experienced this same issue? They told him they had 3 other "vehicles" in with the same failure that same week. Any ideas?

 

Well, my 04 is going into the shop today. I have noticed a small lake under the front driver side. And to my shock it was PS fluid. The truck only has 33.000 miles. What the Hell!!! Well atleast it happend before 36.000. So your not the only one out there....

 

I have an 05 with 16000 miles that is going in the shop today for the infamous red fluid leak under the front left of ther truck. I Think mine is power steering, but a buddy od mine took his in for the same thing and it was tranny fluid. What are the syptoms of rack & pinion failure?

Good luck to all...

 

well i took it to the stealership yesterday and.... the rack is good, two of the lines coming off to the power steering was leaking so no big deal. Thank god!!

 

The guy I work with drove his out to lunch and every thing worked normal. Then after lunch headed back to work, drove a few blocks and then no steering! Simply gone... He pulled over and there it sat until the the stealer ship came with a tow truck and picked it up.

 

Just an FYI, but you probably already know this...... Power steering fluid and transmission fluid are the same things in the Ram's "ATF+4" again, just an FYI if no one knew.

 

Same problem here. Good thing it wasn't anything too bad.

 

My steering rack has failed twice on my 2002 1500 4x4 with 5.9L.

The first was at two years old with 30,000 kms and was covered under bumper-to-bumper.

Last week it failed again, but this time isn't being covered.

The failure resulted in a complete lack of steering (while at speed) and near crashes. It requires hulk-like effort to turn the wheel even 2 degrees after this happens.

If anyone wishes to discuss this matter, please call or write:
Sean Newman
Petawawa Ontario
(613)732-6139
karrie7@sympatico.ca

 

2005 Ram 1500 with Hemi and only 38000 miles. I brought it to the dealership before the 36000 mile warranty was out to have the tech look over teh trucka nd make sure there was nothing wrong it it before it went out of warranty.. He must of been a new guy since i just found out that it needs alot of work. Teh check engine light came on so i brought it to the dealer to have it looked at.. guess what the cat on teh drivers side is junk but it is covered under the 7/70000 drivetrain warranty. and the rear pinion seal is leaking but that is covered as well... now for the best one the pinion gear on teh rack and pinion is shot...i had no problem wit the steering.. and they werent going to cover that and it was going to cost me $750. i bitch to the manager and he is going to cover it under a good faith warranty. Teh truck was only 2k mile out of warranty. The kicker is that teh truck was just there for a checkup to make sure everything was ok.

 

I've had basically the whole front end replaced at some point. The rack twice, driver side inner and outer tierod ends once, passanger side twice, and sway bar once. My rack is leaking again, but I'm off warranty now and trying to find a new rack that will actually last. Not an OEM new or rebuilt that's just going to fail on me again in another 30000 miles.