complacentsee

$2450 for a new rack?

Today when I headed to work I noticed a new sound (not a good one, as usual) and a bad feeling in the power steering. After adding a bit of fluid( it was just under the low) it all went back to normal. but after a few miles it came right back, and was a bit low again.

so after a bit of leak hunting, I noticed a lot of fluid had leaked out of of the passenger front tie rod end.

so after a bit of searching i saw people say over a grand to fix. so i was expecting something like 1300$ when i called. and they came back with $2450, now i can find rebuilt ones for $300.

how hard is it to do this yourself? i saw one post saying a guy did it in 5 hours. Is there by chance a guide? i searched for a while but since im stressed out now its hard to find much.

SoSlow

who is "they"? i'm assuming you went to the dealer..bad move

complacentsee

dealer was the only place open, so only place i could get the estimate from.

I have calls into 2 other dealers, I'm assuming the prices will be close to eachother but with Audis you never know.

I dont know of any good shop where I'm at that will work on audis, or that i would trust doing this.

Last time I took mine to a shop it was the dealer for a turbo job, and the bill ended up being 3grand over the estimate, so im a bit weary of taking it anywere, I'm just not sure I can get it home to pick up another car, or to a shop I would take it to.

I was just wondering if any one had this done at a dealer and knew how much they paid. or if it can be a easy DIY, time consuming is alright. Is it on par with cv joints? or more like a timing belt?

SoSlow

where do you live...somebody here can tell you where to go - stop going to the dealer

complacentsee

currently in Austin, MN for the summer. other wise, St. Cloud MN would work if I can drive my car 200 miles, (not sure).

Wasn't planing on going to the dealer, thats why I came here. But as far as worst case pricing goes that was way more then I was dreading. It hardly seems responsible to do it on a car with 120,000 miles.

SoSlow

put your location in the SUBJECT line, people arent going to go out of their way to click your posts

complacentsee

Austin, MN or St. Cloud MN (assuming I can make a 200mi trip to St. Cloud)

SoSlow

i would not risk driving the car 200mi, you risk frying your power steering pump

complacentsee

I'm not sure exactly how bad the leak is, since I didnt relize there was an issue and was cranking the wheel pretty heavy to see if the pumps sound would go away. (At the time i figured the pump was shot.)

SoSlow

do not drive the car...