I got a 91 accord lx, when 135,xxx miles. I just got the car, driving it home, notice a "clicking" sound when turning. Both ways....and I inspected the axles before hand and they were in pretty good shape.

Went to change the oil today and look underneath the car for more of an inspection and saw the boots on the steering rack and pinion were greasy.



Passenger side one has grease coming out of the vacuum line





And then the driver side boot just had the nipple sticking out with no line on it.



Being that this is for the girlfriend and the kids, I want to replace it to insure reliability and was wondering if I should replace the whole thing or just replace the ends? Its drivable, but how "safe" is it, I wont let her drive it until I get it fixed.

 

I would venture a CV boot tore and they didn't replaced the boot until the CV went bad. It looks like CV grease. The rack would leak PS fluid.

 

Well, I know its grease from the boot but where would I go about on fixing it? I mean should I get a whole rebuilt steering rack and pinion piece? Or can I just replace the pinions? I dont think replacing a boot will fix it cause they are not torn.

I have been looking for just the pinions but cant find any.

 

We are taking about two different things. The CV joints and their boots are part of the half shafts not the rack. A clicking noise on a turn is usually a bad CV joint which failed from the boot getting torn and the elements such as water and dirt getting into it. The rack and pinion you photographed also has boots but they are not covering grease like a CV joint and if the seals in the rack go bad it will leak power steering fluid not grease. The grease in the photo may have come from the CV boot failing.

The Rack and pinion is one item if you decide to change that.

 

So to clear this up your talking about the cv joints/half shafts which means the axles? The boots on the axles looks perfect, but the pictures I showed you were boots coming coming from the cv joints from the steering rack. Im sorry if I get my terminology wrong. But, Im pretty certain the clicking is coming from the parts shown in the picture and not from the axles. So replacing steering rack and pinion would solve this matter?

 

If you are sure about the Rack being the location go for it. I can only advise based on your post. The boots should look new on the axles if they have been replaced.

 

The boots look new on the axles, I have pics I could possibly posts. And Im certain the clicking is coming from the picture where the vac line disconnected from the boot area on the 2nd pic.

Inner tie rods are what they are called, couldnt think for a second. Possible they click when gone bad during steering?


I think I have spare tie rod parts laying around. Not sure if I have inner or outer tie rods, have to check when I get home.

 

Inner tie rods are like a ball-joint within that rubber boot. That can be loose & popping just like the outer tie-rod ends that you can see.

That boot is supposed to be air-filled, so if there's PS fluid in there, then the internal seals in the rack are leaking. There's grease inside the rack, but not so much that those boots are filled with grease.

 

True, there is grease inside those boots, not as much, but obviously its leaking grease from the vac line.

And consider that the vac line on the driver side boot was disconnected for however long could have allowed that part to go bad. I dont think Im leaking PS fluid cause I dont see any visually.

Debating on buying a whole new rack and pinion for 115 or just rebuilding the tie rods.....

 

if you replace the rack you will waste your money......those hoses are for air movement from 1 side to the other, when the wheels are turned all the way to one side , the accordion like p/s boots, ( one will enlarge , 1 will get smaller, thus air will transfer from 1 to the other,), if p/s rack boots are torn you should replace JUST the boots and not the p/s rack, p/s rack boots keep dirt and water from getting into the p/s rack shaft,,, without the boot or a torn boot, if dirt gets into the shaft, when you turn the wheels the dirt on the shaft will go into the outer seals,, after a while p/s rack outer seals will leak,,
if there is no p/s fluid coming out of the p/s rack boots p/s rack is not leaking ..

You can have new cv boots but joints could still be noisy,, make sure to diagnose properly before wasting your money , also if boots look new that could mean that they were replaced which means that they were torn ..