Saab 9-5 – replacing the steering rack

Now why would any sane person replace their steering rack? Well, when the rack starts to leak fluid into the cv gaiters its got an internal leakage. This leakage will not repair itself….The vehicle will fail MOT, might loose steering, cause power steering pump to run dry and thus break it, and the list goes on.

Now, the power steering racks in Saab 9-5 very seldom develops such leakages. In fact, all Saab-people I’ve spoken to have said that they’ve never heard of a steering rack that needed replacement on a 9-5. Well, guess what. My 9-5 is now on its third steering rack. First one started leaking after 60.000km. Got it replaced under warranty. After another 20.000km that one started to leak as well. Right before I discovered this, the Norwegian Saab dealer that did the rep went bankrupt. So, noone to kick in the leg or demand a new steering rack from.

Cheapest price I found for a new rack and labour was from a Swedish Saab dealer, 21.000 SEK. Instead of getting ruined, I ordered a used steering rack from an online “wreck yard” for 2500 NOK. It was in mint condition. All that remained was to put it into the car…..

Sadly I forgot to take pictures of all the steps involved in the process. However, none of the steps are particulary difficult. It’s just a lot of steps, and each step takes time because of tight working spaces, several bolts to do etc. If you have access to proper a garage lift, things will be a lot easier. I don’t, so the only option was to use the good old jack stands. To stand a chance at all, you need to get a jack which can lift at least 50cm in the vertical direction, as well as jack stands that matches this height. Any lower, and it will be almost impossible to get things done from underneath the car.

Prerequisites:

- Jack capable of lifting at least 50cm.
– Jack stands that can support the vehicle once lifted high enough.
– A set of new o-rings for the banjo bolts on the steering rack’s hydraulic connections.
– Complete set of wrenches, socket wrench, ratches etc. Also some solid pipes (at least 1m) that can be used with the wrenches to get enough torque.
– Power steering oil.
– Pickle fork or puller to pry off the tie rod ends.
– WD40.
– Patience and time

With that in place, these are the steps I followed:

1) Jack up the car and place it on jack stands. For the back of the car ramps could be used since no access to areas near the rear wheels are required.

2) Remove the cover over the intake manifold

3) Remove the reinforcement at the subframe’s rear mounting point. You need to get this off to be able to lower the exhaust. You’ll probably also need to loosen the subframe’s rear fastening bolts a couple of turns to get the reinforcement off (see pt 10)

5) Remove the entire exhaust. Yes. The entire thing. Strictly spoken, you only need to remove the front part. In reality however, the front and back ends will have “grown” together and it will be MUCH easier to remove the entire thing. A couple of things to remember though: Attached to the downpipe of the exhaust are two lambda sensors. Chances of unbolting these are small. Because of the high temperatures in this part of the exhaust, they too will grow to be “a part” of the exhaust over time. I scratched my head over this a little while, but the easy fix is to loosen their respective electrical connectors on engine’s back side and remove the exhaust with the lambdas and their cablework attached.
Secondly, the three 13mmm bolts attaching the downpipe to the turbo could also be quite rusty. Do not be cheap on the WD40 on these Mine came loose surprisingly easy.

6) Now, make sure the steering wheel is centered. It’s important to fixate the steering wheel with the seat belt so it won’t spin after the steering column is disconnected from the steering rack – it could cause damage. Remove the 13mm bolt connecting the steering linkage to the steering rack. (I’ve described this in more detail here: www.cozmopolitan.net/?p=668 ). Take note of the orientation of the steering columns spindle.

7) According to the Haynes manual and Saab WIS, the engine needs to be supported since the rear engine cushion needs to be removed. That is however unnecessary. The rear engine mount doesn’t support the engine. It only absorbs twisting forces. With that in mind, loosen the bolt that fastens the gearbox torque arm on the rear engine mount’s top. I found it best to take on that one frome above using a series of extenders and flexible joints. Now loosen the three bolts attaching the torque arm to the gear box and remove the arm. You will notice that the engine can now flex quite a bit.

8 ) With the rear torque arm out of the way, continue by removing the rear engine mount. It’s attached to the subframe with three small bolts. I guess these could be loosened from underneath, but again I did it from above with extenders and joints. With the bolts off, remove the engine cushion out of the way. Now is also a good time to inspect it for wear and tear .

9) Loosen the tie rod ends’ fastening nuts. If you are going to reuse the tie rod ends on your existing rack, it’s still easier to move these over to the new rack once rack with tie rod ends are detached from the car. Use a pickle fork or a puller. Don’t worry about messing up the wheel alignment – because you will mess it up. After your’e done, the car needs to be taken to a shop with professional equipment for optical all wheel alignment.
Note: The fastening nuts can very well be hard to loosen. Their fastening torque is 70Nm, and if they’ve never been loose before, prepare yourself with some extra meters of pipe to get enough torque. Since the car is off the ground and you have no opposite force to keep things in place when you apply force, use pieces of 2×4 to push against.

10) Loosen the subframe’s rear fastening bolts. Again, these two suckers are specified with a torque setting of 100Nm, so make sure to have that extra piece of pipe around as you’ll surely need it to get them loose.

11) Now things start to get interesting. The Haynes manual now suggests to place a jack underneath the subframe to support it, before taking on the subframe’s two middle fastening bolts. This is a good idea, but not absolutely necessary. The subframe will not crash to the ground even after these two bolts are off, because it’s still held in place in the front. I found that after loosening the two center bolts, I had to force the subframe down at the back. Anyway, it’s probably smart to use the jack, so place it under there and take on the two fastening bolts. Did I mention extension pipe?….

12) Lower the subframe by lowering the jack. As I mentioned – you will probably need to help it to come down. You should have it come down at least 10cm, preferably a little more….

13) Put a tray or something underneath the steering rack’s “head” – the “lump” where the hydraulic leads are connected. Loosen the two and catch all that oil in the tray. Now is a good time to inspect the O-ring tightenings on the banjo bolts. Each bolt shall have two o-rings on it – one on the inside and one on the outside of the hydraulick connector on the banjo bolt. My new steering rack came with almost new banjo bolts and o-rings, and I used these instead of purchasing new ones. In general however, new ones should be acquired.

14) Now loosen the two huge bolts that attach the steering rack to the subframe. They have a nut and a washer on the top, so you’re gonna need to arrange one wrench to hold back, and one to turn. These two were really hard to loosen on my car, I had to throw on like a 1.5m piece of pipe on the ratchet to get enough torque to work them.

15) The steering rack is now loose, but DON’T drag it out just yet. On my MY (2005) there was one clamp that held the hydraulic in-lead to the steering rack. This tiny little clamp needs to come off before wiggling the steering rack out of there. Actually, this tiny little bolt (i think it’s a 10mm) sits so tight, that it took some time to work it off. Make sure there are not any other clamps or other stuff clamped to the steering rack.

16) NOW you can drag the entire rack out. And if you haven’t got the subframe lowered enough down, you will have trouble wiggling the thing off. I was on the verge of taking on the foremost subframe fastening bolts, but after a lot of wiggling and cursing I managed to get it out.

Now is a good time to adjust the toe-in/toe-out roughly before mounting the new steering rack with new tie rod ends (or if you’re gonna reuse your old ones – measure up the amount of turns required to loosen them of the inner steering rods).

Other than that, the reassembly procedure is the reverse of the above, and if you’ve worked through all the points above, the fitting should be straight forward. But even when you know how everything is fitted, it will take considerably amount of time because of the tight working spaces and the amount of bolts to get on properly. Also, when putting it all together again, make sure to tighten all bolts to their proper torque.

The torque settings:

* Torque arm’s three fastening bolts to gearbox : 50Nm
* Rear engine cushion to subframe: 25Nm
* Subframe mounting bolts (all four described in the procedure): 100Nm. + 45deg.
* Subframe reinforcement bolts: 65Nm
* Steering linkage to steering rack spindle: 30Nm (if you manange to get a torque wrench in the footwell, please let me know….I found the working space to tight for any of my torqe wrenches)
* Big fastening bolts for steering rack to subframe: 95Nm.
* Fastening nut on the tie rod ends: 70Nm

Please feel free to e-mail me if you’re going through with this procedure and have any questions. Good luck