2009 Subaru Legacy Power Steering Rack

[Jmlo96]

Hi everyone,

I’m looking to gather some input from others on power steering racks. My Grandma has a 2009 Subaru Legacy 2.5 Limited with 125k on it. The power steering rack has been leaking for a few months now. It’s getting to the point where something has to be done about it.

My gut feeling is to get a new OEM Subaru rack. The new OEM Subaru rack is about 800 dollars. There are several reman racks out there along with new units on Rockauto. I’m hesitant to go with any of these remans or new racks based on the poor reputations of these parts. Are there any good reman or new racks for this car? Most of the remans and aftermarket new racks are around 250 dollars.

I’d really like to avoid future headaches and just go OEM but at the same point in time an 800 dollar OEM steering rack makes me cringe when we got the car for 600 dollars. Does anyone have any suggestions or past experience with steering racks on these Subarus?

Thanks!

 

[SkrrtSkrrt]

Avoid Cardone remans like the plague. Too many horror stories, and a rack is one of the last things you want to be doing twice. Their 100% new racks might be worth it as their new CV axles are pretty solid, but who knows. I've heard good things about Maval remans, but they're kind of steep compared to the competition. Detroit Axle is suspiciously cheap, but their reman racks seem to get good reviews.

There's also Rack Doctor, but good god their customer service is absolutely HORRENDOUS! Their website says they take 24-48 hours to ship products with a maximum of 72 hours if the part isn't in stock. I recently ordered a rack from them last month and heard nothing for 4 days, so I emailed them and asked what was going on. After 3-4 days of silence, I sent out another email which was also ignored. After 2 or 3 days following my second email, I opened up a Paypal dispute. Then suddenly within an hour, the rack was sent out and arrived late in the evening on a Friday. Now, I was scheduled to work 12-16 hour shifts the whole weekend through Monday, so I didn't have time to inspect the product and close the case immediately. Paypal gave them until the end of the month (like 2-3 weeks I think) to respond to the dispute before they would do anything, so I figured that Rackdoctor could either respond to it and get it closed, or I would inspect the product and close it myself on my day off. Well when Monday rolled around I got a call while I was work from a very irate staff member berating me about a "chargeback" and "fraud." I checked my email, and they had already submitted the tracking number to Paypal and got the case closed, so I ignored it. Then on Tuesday, I FINALLY got a response to my emails, but it was just them yelling at me about cancelling a chargeback and how it's fraud blah blah blah. At this point I went off on them and explained that a Paypal dispute isn't a chargeback and that it had already been closed by Paypal when they uploaded the tracking number. I told them to stop falsely accusing me of things and to never contact me again, and so far they've shut the hell up. Needless to say, they won't be getting a core return on that, but I don't care if I get the "lifetime warranty" or not. Judging by their customer service, I don't think they intend on honoring the warranty anyways. I installed the rack and it seems to be of quality, but time will tell.