ANOTHER steering rack?!?

[Deev]

Had my car into the dealers about 4 months ago due to creaking on manouvering, which is an issue I'd read about on here before and they diagnosed it as being the steering rack, which they duly replaced. Had the car at the dealers yesterday to look at another issue (the old owl in the turbo again) and they told me that they need to replace the rack AGAIN! I mean - wtf... That doesn't bode well for the future!!!

 

[ChrisGTL]

What did the dealers have to say about two new racks on such a young car??

I take it you don't do any WRC in it? lol

 

[leon263]

Have I not read numerous posts on here about this creaking noise whilst manouvering. I thought that the general concensus of opinion was that the noise came from the bearings in the front off-side top mount which is above the suspension strut. If it is from the top mount that would explain why repacing the rack has not cured it.
Can any-one else confirm or deny the top mount theory?

 

[Deev]

Well the last time they replaced the rack the problem did go away, albeit temporarily... I'll listen more closely after they fit this next one. To be honest that was just an "aside" to the main reason for booking the damn thing in!

And no - no WRC

 

[Deev]

Interesting update to this... The car is booked in for its steering rack next week, so I have given SEAT customer care a call to ask if this replacement part will be warranted on its own, or if the warranty will expire at the same time as the rest of the car (3 weeks time - eek!). The bloke told me that it wouldn't have any special warranty, but if I approach the dealer and offer to make a token contribution to the repair (say just £10 or so) then the repair will be covered by a 2 year parts and labour warranty! Has anyone ever heard of this before? It doesn't seem to be the sort of thing that SEAT would advise!

Saying that, he also said this was the first time he'd ever heard of any steering rack problems in the Leon so I'm not sure if it was just the teaboy answering the phones

 

[M8SWE]

Hi Deev,

My steering rack went at less than 10k miles on my '07 FR. I'm in Leeds too and take it to Huddersfield as the Yeadon lot are a right shower. The replacement has been fine though - must have been a bad batch!

 

[GhostMjr]

Thanks for this post chaps.

Took mine in a couple of weeks ago due to creaking on maneuvering at low speeds too.

They lubricated it all and said it was still creaking so they'd have to order the part.

Anyway they replaced it under warranty and when i picked it up it was really stiff to drive.

Turns out there were a few settings even the garage didn't know about. The rack has a setup up for car type engine and a subsection for wheel size and depth anyway now all sorted.

I got the complete work documentation and it was £800 to fix lucky it was under warranty but this is bad £546 for part rest for labour.

Make sure you get a printout fo the works notice so you can prove what work was/ wasnot done. I even know who did each part of the procedure on this works note.

Mines done 5261 (mainly town miles recently)

 

[Deev]

Not an isolated problem, clearly - but I'm more intrigued by the SEAT guy's advice to "contribute" to the cost to gain a warranty on the repair. Has anyone had anything like this before?

 

[Deev]

Hmm - the plot thickens! I've just received a flapping panicking voicemail from the guy at SEAT customer services that I spoke to telling me that he's given me duff information and that I can't contribute to the cost of the repair in order to gain warranty...

Makes me wonder if a SEAT head honcho reads these forums and has just blasted the poor guy...

 

[/dev/null]

My steering wheel sometimes creaks when turning right at low speeds - do you think this might be what is wrong? I asked them to look at it on the last service but they came back saying they couldn't find anything.