A while back, well a year or year and a half ago, there was a good deal of discussion about the replacement of the steering rack input shaft seal on a RAV4. It's a piece of cake! Open the hood & disconnect the battery. Be sure and mark or remember where all the wires and hoses go. Remove the coolant recovery bottle, the air filter and air filter box & the air box to intake manifold piping. The charcoal cannister just lifts up out of some alignment bosses. You can now see the steering shaft coming down through the firewall ahead of you and a little to your left and down. Now open the drivers door and look under the dash you will see a ujoint with bolts on both ends. You should not have to mess with the top bolt?? but take the bottom bolt out. ( At this point make sure you have the wheels and steering wheel straight ) Tie the steering wheel off if necessary to make sure it will stay straight ahead. Now go back outside and remove the bolt at the bottom of the outside ujoint. At this point you should be able to slide the outside ujoint system up and off of the steering rack input shaft, then down and out of the inside ujoint. Pull the cover up off the steering rack input shaft and you are at the snap ring and seal. Remove the snap ring and then remove the seal by whatever method you choose. Replace the seal ours was $4.80 and the snap ring sharp edge out $8.50 with our business discount from the local Toyota dealer. Put all the components back in a reverse method of the way you took it apart. R&ring the snap ring and seal and getting the steering wheel back straight is the hardest part of the job. With someone to help align the steering wheel and give moral support you should be able to do the whole job in two or three hours tops. This was on our 4.1 but the job should be about the same on all the RAV4s give or take a little time. Ours was done in a hour and a half but we had to pull it back apart to get the steering wheel centered right so it took another half to three Quarters of an hour or closer to the three hours total. Good Luck.
Exposed....Steering Rack Seal Replacement
vicco27
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This one [FONT="]- part# 45260-42050 steering knuckle on the "Intermediate Shaft" ? [/FONT]
I sprayed “Steering knuckle” with WD40 - and my steering is fine now for almost a month even when temp drops below 32F. You was right about Steering knuckle - its rusted.. Thanks for your help!!!
I feel soo much better now, that I dont have to replace "Steering Rack" :smile
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170 Posts
i will be getting a new rack eventually since the quick repair of the seal of the input shaft arent a lon term fix, for now i have flushed old the power steering out replacing it with fresh one adding some ATP AT-205 Re-Seal Stops Leaks and so far no leaks at all besides you can feel your steering smoother with fresh fluid, learned that one of the reasons why seals go bad is because we never replace the fluid
Well my original rack is still going strong at 234k, it's been used an abused by me, submerged in water on job sites, driven through mud puddles in the mountains and injected with Lucus stop leak. Seems like a big job to replace a perfectly good rack if only the deal is gone. If you do replace the rack id suggest doing th clutch at the same time as everything will be almost out anyway (if it's a manual).
Finally got around to fixing this. Took about 3-4 hours. Went pretty smoothly. So far looking like the leak is gone. Cost me less than $20 for the parts and had to buy some snap ring pliers for $10. Hardest part was getting the old seal out. Drilling through the hard plastic in a tight space was difficult, and I was concerned I would drill too deep, especially with the amount of force I had to press down to get the hole started. Once the old seal was out putting the new one in was a bit difficult as well. Not much room to swing a hammer. If I had to do it again I could probably get it all done in less than 2 hours.
Thanks again to everyone who posted here!
Thanks again to everyone who posted here!
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42 Posts
Preparing myself and my rav4.1 for the same seal replacement.
Here are the part numbers and dimensions
Toyota: 90311-19007
Corteco: 19026513b
Nok: bp2152e
Dimensions: 19x38x7/7.8
Price in europe: 4$ for one seal
I will place some pictures how to replace it
Here are the part numbers and dimensions
Toyota: 90311-19007
Corteco: 19026513b
Nok: bp2152e
Dimensions: 19x38x7/7.8
Price in europe: 4$ for one seal
I will place some pictures how to replace it
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42 Posts
It took me about 6 hours to repleace this seal. I have LPG so it was not easy because i need to detach coolant hoses.
You need a long sharp ended screw to take out the seal.
*Second picture shows circlip that is not installed. Just placed loose.
You need a long sharp ended screw to take out the seal.
*Second picture shows circlip that is not installed. Just placed loose.
Attachments
Right now Im in process of replacing o-ring.
I couldn't get the steering shaft to slid up off the steering rack input shaft.
Do I have to detach the steering wheel to get access to the input shaft?
UPDATE: I got it - no need to remove steerng wheel
old post but i noticed you are in OC haha and well I have this problem with my rav4 and was thinking of doing it one of these days. do you still have your rav? I just picked up a 98 3dr manual awd working out a few bugs with it but slow and steady haha.
Here is a DIY with pictures and detail that I created based on the excellent info given by the OP and others in this thread. It should help others who are planning this job to complete it more quickly.
http://www.rav4world.com/forums/94-...replace-power-steering-rack-seal-pinion-valve-seal-stop-common-4-1-ps-leak.html
Good luck! I think this is a job that most anyone can do, but it helps to have smaller hands due to the space constrictions.
Thanks -- removing the seal was the hardest part for me! Did you discover any tips on how to remove it? Were you able to use the "screw" method, or something else?
I tried the screw method, but obviously did it incorrectly because it didn't work, and so it took me over an hour to get that dang seal out. Most of the time was spent searching through my tools for something I could slip under it without damaging the bearings that are behind it.
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12 Posts
Not who you're quoting, but thanks for the write up you did - it saved me a lot of time.
I didn't time myself but it went pretty quickly since the intermediate shaft just slid right off with minimal effort. I tried the screw method, but couldn't get a drill in there and couldn't get enough downward force with a screwdriver to pierce the seal. I whacked it with a punch a few times and aimlessly poked it with a seal puller (too long) but finally had success wedging a small flathead between the pinion shaft and seal then prying toward the right side of the vehicle.
So far so good, I'll keep checking my fluid levels for a while, but I think this got it.
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3 Posts
Thanks this worked for me Axle nut fit good to install seal.
Have you tried it, is it impossible or almost impossible ?
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