2006 Power steering fail

First of all, Hello to all. I'm a new member, and have had my 2006 Tundra for about 3 years. Got it with 175,000 miles on it, and have done a few repairs, but overall I'm quite pleased with the truck. I have been driving Toyotas for 20 or 30 years, and they are my preferred brand of vehicle. I live in central Alaska, so it has to face a bit of cold through the winter. The truck is in very good used condition, well maintained, and has no modifications. Since I purchased it, I have put in a new fuel pump, alternator, and a blown power steering hose a couple of years ago. The power steering hose blew when it was about 50 below zero, which is not uncommon here when it gets that cold.

The problem:. A few days ago, while driving, the power steering became weak over about an hour's time, but only when turning left. It took an hour or so to go from "no problem" to "doesn't work anymore". (The weather was not extreme... it was about +5 degrees (F)... quite comfortable here!) I can turn right with one finger on the wheel, but it takes serious muscle to turn past the center point and turn to the left. I jacked up the front end, both tires off the garage floor, and there seems to be no impediment in the system... I can move the wheels freely from lock to lock using my hands on a tire with the truck not running. With the truck not running, and the tires off the ground, the wheels can be steered (with steering wheel) left/right fairly easily with a full range of motion. With the truck running and the tires off the ground, I can turn both ways from lock to lock, with one finger on the steering wheel, no problem, and very little effort. So I had my tween daughter sit in the truck and turn the steering wheel while I pulled on a front wheel. When she was turning the steering wheel to the right, if I pulled against it with all my might, the steering got a bit stiffer, but my daughter could steer past my efforts. But when I held the tire and she turned left, she could not overcome my pulling against her. It's like it has lost power when turning left, and can't stand up to resistance. The power steering level is normal in the reservoir, and I see no leaking fluid on the ground.

I am not a mechanic, but I can usually fix a problem if I have a manual or some guidance to follow. I do not know how to diagnose this problem. Can anyone give me some ideas for how to get to the bottom of this? I would greatly appreciate it!

 

Sounds like it blew a seal inside the rack itself. Detroit axle makes a replacement.

https://www.detroitaxle.com/part/20...-pinion/power-steering-rack-and-pinion/25544/

 

Also, congrats on being the nornmost member we have! (AFAIK)

 

Haha

Now that is how you do understatement, people.

 

Definitely sounds like a rack issue.

My guess: the heat cycles of the extreme cold and relative warmth after 17 years has taken it's toll on the seals inside the rack. We vacation to northern Wisconsin in the winters, where it doesn't get nearly as cold, but it's not uncommon for it to be 15 or 20 below zero. We've broken a lot of rubber or plastic parts, including seals and gaskets, as the heat cycles from 100 in the summer to -15 in the winter really make things brittle.

Please keep in mind that this is only a guess. I've never torn apart a rack from one of our trucks, but that sounds to me like it could be possible for one to go out.

 

Thanks for the responses. It looks like something I could figure out how to do myself.

Since I'm getting into the rack and pinion, would it be advisable to put a new power steering pump at the same time? Power steering lines too? If I can scrape the money together for the parts, what steering system components would be recommended to replace at the same time? The truck now has about 205K miles on it, by the way.

 

Don't think a new pump would be necessary. If you haven't done the lower ball joints I would consider those. (Though you do have an 06 so not as common of an issue). As far as I know the steering rack is the same for all year first gens. Here is a post about the part number for OEM. LINK. Or may just do the Detroit axle part though I don't think the cost is too much different. @bmf4069 would have to advise on a part number.
May consider doing outer tie rods too as the rack may only come with the inners depending on what you order. Get new rack bushings as well since it'll already be apart (unless that's something it comes with but I don't think so) Edit: New rack should come with bushings installed May be good to give your front end a look over and order anything you need at once just for shipping convenience.

I'm sure you may have issues with getting stuff shipped to you so you may have to just get what you can find if this is your only vehicle or something like that. I would highly advise against ordering some cheap rack (or even OEM rack) from Amazon. If you get OEM from there it's possible to be counterfeit these days and the cheap rack won't last.

 

My oem rack came complete with outers and new bushings. I’d still like to replace the rubber coupler thingy because I think that’s where I have steering wheel play and lots of steering bump while off roading.

 

My rack came with bushings as well which can be seen in the pictures you linked.

It's kind of a shame that we can't organize all these threads into a mega thread by category or problem. I don't have the time to do that. Just an idea that's been living in my head rent free for a hot minute.

 

Can I back up a step and ask again if there are any other thoughts as to the possible causes of this problem? This is my daily driver vehicle, and I've got to get it back on the road as soon as possible. I want to do all I can to avoid putting a bunch of time and money into it and then find out that it doesn't fix the problem.

Is there something hydraulic, or levers or switches, actuators, etc. that could be failing somewhere in the system, that would cause this? Please forgive the ignorance on my part, but I have no idea yet how the internals look in the steering system. YouTube will be my friend tonight though.

 

With it only affecting one side of the steering, it's the rack. It's got a bunch of little o rings and seals inside, and one let go in the wrong spot, but only on that side.

 

Thanks. That makes sense, and I'm going to go with that. I really appreciate the insight.

Thanks to everyone for your input!

 

Update... Just finished putting in the new rack and tie rods. The new rack fixed my problem. Now I have to get it aligned and hopefully all with be well.

Evidently I didn't get the rack perfectly centered, so now my steering wheel is off by a quarter turn. Can that be fixed with a professional alignment, or do I need to take it apart again?

And for the Alaska angle... I have an un-heated garage, and was working out there under my truck for about 8 hours today. Cold enough that the Starbucks tea my wife bought me at 2pm was frozen solid by 8pm. Cold enough that my aerosol parts cleaner wouldn't spray. That's the life!

 

Brrrr! Could be worse...check out @Tundra2 's "tent-o-pain".

Yes, alignment can center the wheel if you ask them to do it.

 

Given each 10 deg of steering wheel position off is approx 1 spline, your 4 to 5 splines off gives me concerns of clock spring spiral cable. My limited knowledge comes from many years back on my C10 and the days we could trust our alignment folks. Today too many have a toe and go mentality. All that to say, I'd have to consider getting the spline numbers down before alignment or at least have a trusted aligner know your position and trust they'll fix you up.

Couple years back a member here was dealing with similar situation and I recall a user at Tacoma World named Dirty Pool was the go to guy for these type situations.

In any case....have a read if you wish !
Centering my steering wheel after steering rack replacement

 

Working on this project again tonight. I used a tape measure to make sure the outer tire rods are threaded on equally on both sides, so the tires are fairly parallel and good enough to drive to the alignment shop in a few days. But with that nailed down, my steering wheel is off by a quarter turn to the right, with the wheels pointing straight ahead. The truck's steering turns about 3.5 times around lock to lock, so by my garage math, I'm about 7% off. I'm going to have to pull the thing apart, align the steering wheel, and put it back together. So... the million dollar question... Is it possible to disconnect the steering shaft doohickey that mates to the steering rack's splines by loosening the pinch bolts and sliding the doohickey upwards far enough to clear the splines, then have my assistant (my 14 yr old child!) straighten out the steering wheel, and then I slide it back down, reconnect, and tighten it back up? I really, really don't want to have to drop the whole steering rack again.

I don't know how it got off-center. I took a lot of care to make sure it was straight, but obviously did something wrong.

 

Alignment shop should be able to straighten the wheel unless it is off by a crazy amount. If not it may be easier to just pull the steering wheel off and put it back on straight. I'd let them try and align it first then weigh out your options.

 

Mine was off by about that much when we replaced my rack. Alignment shop fixed it.

 

Update on this project...

I took to the alignment shop, they refused to align it, due to ball joints. They showed me a bad ball on the lower right, and on the upper left. It was obvious. Also showed me blown bushings on the front shocks. Also showed me a $1,900 estimate for parts and labor.

Have I mentioned I'm not a mechanic?

So... I just finished putting on new ball joints, both uppers and lowers. And new front strut/shock assemblies, and upper control arms. Bought rear shocks, too, since I was already shipping so much. Parts + shipping to Alaska was $775.

Plus a bunch of tools I had to buy. But it is fortunate that I work at an industrial hardware & fastener company (accounting/HR0 Mgr, not a tool guy).

SO..... as soon as I get everything greased and torqued to specs, I'll put the wheels on and take it back to an alignment shop.

 

OEM?

 

Man, I sure hope so

Would hate to go through this again with another member, or see another truck with a snapped lower balljoint because they failed to use OEM. It hurts seeing trucks with the wheels laying horizontal to the ground or shoved up where they aren't supposed to be.

 

And I was feeling so proud of myself.

I bought what appeared to be the best premium option ball joints from Rock Auto. Mevotech TTX.

So what's the deal? I found the lower ball joint to be a fairly easy and straightforward repair, and if this is a dangerous brand and ball joint, I would not fear changing it out sooner rather than later.

 

OEM is the only way to go. I had mine break on me. Luckily not on the highway which is where I would have been within 3 mins of leaving work, if God didn’t make it fail right after the second speed bump leaving the parking lot. (Going 5 MPH) I temporarily got a auto parts store one installed and immediately got onto Larry h miller Toyota parts and bought 2. You got time now, buy Toyota OEM lower ball joints.

 

Now hold on here. Hasn't someone determined that those nice mevotech ball joints are actually pretty good quality. Or am I thinking of another brand? Someone on here found one that is almost comparable to OEM.

 

Maybe so, I haven’t done extensive research. Maybe hyperlink if for us? What’s the $ difference between OEM and MOVTECH? I’m curious how they found out how the two compare? By testing or physically measuring the components and grade of material ?

 

Mevetech here LINK

Here's someone that said they were going to run them.LINK
I'm not having any luck finding the post I wanted to.

I would say the ball joints OP got are the best of the shit ones but I still wouldn't go more that 10-20k miles. Especially in the cold environment.

 

I think I remember something like that, but was it the UCAs they were talking about? Something about them being rebranded SPCs?

 

In general, Mevotech makes garbage.

But yes, Mevotech does occasionally contract out. They have two offerings for upper control arms, and the more spendy pair are rebranded SPC.

I wouldn't trust them for LBJs. Pics like what @Tacopashka posted are all too common. Like, I'm shocked nobody's been sued yet.

 

PS - may want to go ahead and buy new bolts too, this being the 3rd time they'll get torqued down. Unless new bolts were installed with the most recent ones.

 

If im not mistaken, the new ball joints from toyota come with new hardware...call whoever you order from before you do order to make sure. I think i also blue lock tited them.