Hello all!!

I was wondering if anyone knows of a good steering rack upgrade to the ae110 specifically the corolla e11. Driving around the steering feels very sloppy and not direct this could be because its old but also it requires a big steering wheel input to turn which I guess because of the steering rack ratio too.
Driving my friends ae120 it felt a lot more responsive and direct and was wondering if maybe the ae120 steering rack would fit on my car as a nice upgrade, has anyone tried this before? mind you my car is left hand drive too.

Regards

Age, as I found with mine, won't make it slow or unresponsive, but will lead to looseness.

oldae82 wrote:Age, as I found with mine, won't make it slow or unresponsive, but will lead to looseness.

Do you know where I can get a new rebuilt one or a rebuild kit for mine lhd
Thanks

Is there a way to adjust your pinion preload?? What is the condition of your tie rods? Tie rod ends> Ball joints and bushings? Rack can actually be fine if with other issues in the suspension. My 2c.

sirdeuce wrote:Rack can actually be fine if with other issues in the suspension. My 2c.

Agreed.

Testing for bad ball joints, wheel bearings, and tie rods involves a jack, a stand, and some wiggling.

-Never get underneath without using jackstands... -

If it's a power steering rack and it isnt leaking/boots aren't full of fluid I'd start looking at the inner and outer tie rods.

Assuming they're bad, under $50 for decent replacements. (Excluding an alignment afterwards)

If it's the rack, around $140-$180 plus a core fee and new fluids.

More often than not if you're in there and doing it yourself refreshing the entire front end is where I'd go. (Assuming it needs it, you plan to drive the car for quite a while/isn't an immediate safety issue, and is worth it vs the car's value)

Isn't rocket science, but pretty intimidating if all you've ever done is change the oil and occasional filters here and there.

The numbers above were just off a quick look at rockauto, sticking with moog for suspension parts (there are cheaper options, but I can't attest to their quality)

Cliff notes - generally cheap and easy to fix, just have to find the issue.

If you can handle it, swap in a manual rack.

manual racks are slower because of their ratio, which allows for puny human muscles. Take off the power steering pump. Except for parking situations, it's pretty easy to deal with, and fairly quick. I had a '65 Sunbeam tiger with manual steering (all they came with, actually), and a 90 degree turn didn't call for enough steering input to cancel the turn signal