Is my steering rack bad? I had someone replace the steering rack but I never noticed an improvement after the job was done, and I have at times been suspicious if the rack was even replaced. I've spent a year trying to get said someone to look into why the steering is still stiff. He ended up replacing a bunch of front end parts like tie rod ends but I never experienced an improvement. I've since found someone else to do work on my car. He thinks my steering rack was never replaced. I'm posting here for a second opinion. This car has manual steering. Does it look my steering rack is bad? (It's *supposedly* only one year old).

 

Boots ripped on the rack, Boots were replaced once already as per the zip ties holding it. Possibly rack was replaced and bolt got cross threaded so rack mount is loose.

Boot open for a long time, internal dirt has quite possibly compromised the rack, definitely the inner tie rods.

Also there is a rack tension adjustment, could be someone over tightened the set screw before locking in with the lock nut. You can see teh FSM page regarding the rack adjustment here:
https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-.../#post52134423

 

Thanks TomCat for the reply! Interestingly my car does have something wrong with the alignment. The caster and camber are off 0.7 degrees and 1.7 degrees respectively after the alignment was done (the alignment specialist said he couldn't get it better than that). The passenger side tire is worn on the inside (about 1.25" of tread is worn thin on the inside of the tire) but the rest of the tire is in perfect shape. The driver side is also worn a little bit on the inside as well. The total toe is out by -1.05 degrees.

The alignment issues are most likely from the time I crashed into a rounded concrete median: it was a divider type thing to separate lanes of a toll booth. So I'm hoping it's just a bent arm and not a bent frame because I'm about to buy a used motor for my car to replace the current one which has 325K miles and I'd be sad if the alignment issue is not fixable. I'm also going to be replacing the steering rack when the motor is taken out and am wondering if anyone knows of a good source for steering racks? I'm having a hard time finding OEM ones online.

Another question: when you buy a used motor from a salvage yard do used motors come with an 02 sensor?