Hi I have been trying to diagnose a rattle comming from the passenger side front wheel of my 2006-2007 Civic EX Sedan for a while. It happens while going over bumps, and I mean bumps where the street is kind of cracked. The noise is not reproducible while going on an uneven surface, only when the wheel hits a crack.
So far what I have done is:
- Retightened the 6 power steering rack bolts to the specified torque
- Changed the passenger side inner rod
- Changed the passenger side Sway bar link
- Adjusted the Steering Rack Guide

After doing all of these things got better but If I move the wheel left to right lots of times with the car on jackstands I can feel a knock and some play on it. It is really looking like its coming from inside the rack so I don’t know what I should replace in there.

The car has almost 60k miles, my previous 99 EX had over 130k miles and after doing the steering rack adjustment a very similar noise (if not the same) went away.

Any ideas on how should I fix this noise?

 

Have a video for what it's doing when you turn it?

 

check your lower ball joints

 

Ok at this point i am 100% sure the noise is coming from the rack only from the right (passenger) side.

I live in Uruguay and here you dont get Rebuilt Racks that easy as in the US, you have to take them for repair. Since I dont have any leak. I am thinking of fixing it myself, however I dont know how complicated it would be.

I am thinking on taking the 6 bolts out so I have some space to work on but without taking the rack out. I was thinking on taking the inner and outer rod and replacing part 53630-SNA-A01, its the #11 in the below diagram

2006 Honda Civic 4 Door EX KA 5MT P.S. Gear Box Components (HPS)

I have some doubts regarding the "Seals" on #1, are these seals to avoid PS fluid to come out? or just to keep the rack clean? I dont know much about racks but I suppose the fluid just goes through the pinion assembly only.