The largest Civic Type R club forum

[chopper70]

Just a quick thank you to N + N for the creaky / squeaky steerimg rack fix. :thumbup:

My EP3 sounded like an old floorboard and it was ruining the enjoyment of my new car (collected it on 1st sept), plus my missus was whinging as much as the car was creaking.
Halfords spray grease £3.99 FTW, no more creaking and no more whinging = RESULT
Who'd of thought that spray grease could even fix a pain in the neck!!!! :WOOT

[undercover]

Done, I'm from Malaysia, not many ppl have knowledge on ep3 over here. If it's not this thread it might cost me a bomb to get it fix..... No more annoyance !!!

[Newannaive]

To help a bit with the creaky steering rack sufferers I thought I'd post a bit more info, and a few pics of when I recently refurbed my steering rack, just so you can get an idea of what is behind the rubber boots. Maybe give you the motivation to do a more in depth fix.

Here are a couple of helpful posts on the forum, with some nice pics, that are worth a read through.

First off the video on page 1 of this thread of course to decide if you have the same problem...and the pics of where I pierced the rubber boots to spray lube inside are on page 2.

Now here are mine, woox and jreedy's pics of our dismantled racks.

Woox slider replacement

Jreedy slider replacement

My boot+slider replacement

So you can see what the rack without the boot on looks like...



Below is what lies behind the boot where you are spraying the lube, that is basically a shaft sliding inside a tube which was greased up from the factory but can, and will, dry out over time. That is where you want the lube to penetrate.



If you fancy sliding the boot back to get some good penetration with some decent lube then remove the clips from either end of the boot...you can see the o/s clip below.



Remove both clips and then just turn steering all the way to one lock, and you will have plenty of room, then just turn to full lock the other way to do the other. If you have access to 2 trolly jacks, one on each jacking point, you can remove front wheels and lower the front end of the car making it real easy to lean over the back of the engine to work, axle stands are a tad high even on the lowest setting, also you can move the steering lock to lock easily.
Then when you finished you can re-use the clips or use some heavy duty tie wraps, either will be fine.

[G..ALLEN]

BEST POST EVER, EVER!
My creaking was so bad that I almost considered a new rack from Honda, £1,500, Ouch!
Then I read this!
Everything else was always good, steering ect... so a new rack seemed extreme to me!
Just that dam creaking!

Problem solved!
Well done :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

[matt.f]

Will try this on mine.Don't fancy putting holes in the rubber boot because it's there to keep dirt out.

[matt.f]

Just done mine,managed to cut the metal tie off and pull the boot back and get a good dose of lubricant/grease in and then cable tied it back on.Worked a treat!
Splits/holes in rubber gaitors is an mot failure according to a few mot testers I spoke to.

[boulderhog]

Just a quick reply to say thanks for this info. I've been having knocking over certain bumps, which sounded the same as full lock sound, rattle/donking noise, so I made a small cut in the rubber boot and using a 10mm syringe (minus the needle) put in 80ml of a cv litho/moly grease in each side, and the knocking sound has gone! (could probably pack more in, but had to stop somewhere). There are still plenty of other noises to replace it, one of which being my Tegiwa, which I refitted after the above job and positioned too close to the shield bolt, so now have a scratch on the carbon Oh well, live and learn. Worth mentioning that I couldn't recreate the noise by pulling on the rack at any point, everything felt solid, including the wheels both side to side and vertically, also no problems with pulling to the left or right, or centering, so nothing really pointed to the rack as the problem, top mounts were tight too, the only clue was when jacked up, manualy turning the wheels from lock to lock produced the same sound at each extreme, may be useful to somebody?

Not keen on holes in the rubber, but I'm sure a suitable glue can easily plug these up so that over zealous MOT jobsworths can't spot it, small self closing slits on the upper side of the rubber shouldn't let any dirt in anyway, they are very small after all. No way I could have found the space to remove the metal clip, let alone properly grease and then refit, I'm stumped as to how anyone manages to do this without removing the rack. I'd love to see an idiots guide to how this area can be accesed to do this, and how the weird metal clip actually releases.

[jdmnick]

I have tried the spray lube through the boot but it hasn't worked, also the sound is coming from further over to passenger side than the middle would this still be considered to be the steering rack? it's a creaking noise when accelerating and decelerating. I think it is I am going to try and remove clips.

Those that have done it how do the clips come off ?

[trancem]

Contender for thread of the century?

I had really really bad creaking noises at slow speeds when setting off and turning, I initially thought it was my clutch but remembered this thread. I gave this a go now, made incisions into the rubber boots and stuck a straw through and sprayed the hell out of it with WD40. I made 3 incisions on the driver side, but could only make one on the passenger side due to the crappy air filter being in the way.

Just took the car for a spin and voila!!! noises have disappeared!! dont think I should have any problems with dirt getting into the rack as the incisions were only about 2mm long each. Not bad for 15 mins work

Excellent fix!!!

[Newannaive]

:salut:

[trancem]

:salut:

Nice one mate. I think pulling the rack out would be too advanced for me so I am going to continue just ramming WD40 in there as and when!

[Newannaive]

Try and even up the lube on the passenger side, remove the induction kit and do it right. Then it may need it's first re-lube sooner than you think but then it should be ok for 6 months at a time. Try some gt85 instead of wd40, lasts a little longer....or even some white spray grease. :bigthumb:

[trancem]

this?

Yeah mate, it's an unknown induction kit that came with the car, just waiting for my standard airbox to arrive so I'll get the passenger side done when it's off. will gt85 be fine to mix with wd40?

[Newannaive]

Yep, thats the stuff, will be fine to mix mate, no probs at all.

[trancem]

Awesome, going for a proper drive soon so should be able to test it fully :bigthumb:

[Asher951]

as of yesterday i'm a member of the squeaky club will try this tomorrow fingers crossed it will work for me same as it has for you lot :salut:

[nodezeon]

Newannaive.... I think I love you.... can i haz your babies!?

I will be trying this first thing tomorrow!!!!!! :chug:

[Chris023]

hi guys, i think this what my car is doing, my 2002 ctr has done 117k so more than likey it is (i hope) i hear this clicking noise when taking off or down shifting. Its not really very loud but you can definitely hear it, do i have a creaky stearing rack problem? thanks.

[pow216]

Rack Recondition

If the job was split into 3 stages,

1. remove rack
2. recondition rack
3. refit rack

How long do people think each would take?

[Newannaive]

If you know what you are doing, less than an hour for each stage.