Grinding/Rubbing Noise Left Front When Turning

[RogueIV]

I've traced my issue back to where the steering shaft goes through the firewall. It's rubbing against some panel near the firewall, not sure why it's rubbing there and not sure how to get it clearance at this time. I'll likely look into it deeper when I go under it to do the oil in the next couple weeks.

I also noted that the white bushing that inserts in to the rubber boot inside the car wasn't in the boot but pushed up the shaft, I pushed that back down where it belongs but it didn't resolve anything.

The noise started to happen shortly after my Turbo oil feed line recall was performed, not sure if they somehow didn't reassemble the components right or if it's just something totally unrelated. Who knows, they couldn't seem to do the alignment right either so not super stoked on them touching the car again.

If I figure it out I'll put my findings here.

 

[RogueIV]

I've traced my issue back to where the steering shaft goes through the firewall. It's rubbing against some panel near the firewall, not sure why it's rubbing there and not sure how to get it clearance at this time. I'll likely look into it deeper when I go under it to do the oil in the next couple weeks.

I also noted that the white bushing that inserts in to the rubber boot inside the car wasn't in the boot but pushed up the shaft, I pushed that back down where it belongs but it didn't resolve anything.

The noise started to happen shortly after my Turbo oil feed line recall was performed, not sure if they somehow didn't reassemble the components right or if it's just something totally unrelated. Who knows, they couldn't seem to do the alignment right either so not super stoked on them touching the car again.

If I figure it out I'll put my findings here.

Well I figured out why the steering shaft is rubbing there and it isn't good. One of the steering rack's mounting ears is cracked off, which has caused to to become misaligned. Unsure how this happened as the car hasn't been in any accidents. But now I need to find a different rack to put in this thing, and they aren't cheap.

 

[bal]

That's a REALLY unfortunate failure and something I haven't seen unless the car has been in an accident or hit some road debris. If you're under 100k miles that should still be covered under drivetrain warranty unless there was other obvious damage (like road debris) that caused the failure.

As far as I know you can't buy just a rack shell/housing so your best bet is getting lucky on ebay and finding a replacement steering rack (probably looking at $900-$1200). If you're able to remove and disassemble the broken rack and strip down to the housing this probably could be welded since it's not a precision part. Likely the cheapest /best option since with parts and labor a dealership will likely charge around $3800 for a new rack and installation.

The cheapest rack I see on ebay currently is $784.40 coming from Alabama - 2022 Kia Stinger Steering Gear Rack & Pinion OEM 37K Miles - LKQ444444345 | eBay however I also see about 15 other listings using the exact same photo so please be careful and don't get scammed.

 

[djerickd]

oh wow

 

[RogueIV]

That's a REALLY unfortunate failure and something I haven't seen unless the car has been in an accident or hit some road debris. If you're under 100k miles that should still be covered under drivetrain warranty unless there was other obvious damage (like road debris) that caused the failure.

As far as I know you can't buy just a rack shell/housing so your best bet is getting lucky on ebay and finding a replacement steering rack (probably looking at $900-$1200). If you're able to remove and disassemble the broken rack and strip down to the housing this probably could be welded since it's not a precision part. Likely the cheapest /best option since with parts and labor a dealership will likely charge around $3800 for a new rack and installation.

The cheapest rack I see on ebay currently is $784.40 coming from Alabama - 2022 Kia Stinger Steering Gear Rack & Pinion OEM 37K Miles - LKQ444444345 | eBay however I also see about 15 other listings using the exact same photo so please be careful and don't get scammed.

I have no way to prove it but it seems like they may have taken the rack down for the recall but forgot this bolt as the mount on the sub frame is bent downward (easy enough fix there.) There's no marks on anything else under the car that would indicate being hit by debris and less the debris in question managed to hit just that bolt. I'm also the sole driver of this car and don't recall ever hitting anything or hearing anything that would have resulted in this. On the bright side this isn't a super critical mounting point, the 2 main points are the hard mounting points up top. These two bushing mounts on the bottom seem to be there solely to mitigate vibrations and tilting. Misalignment after the break was caused but the subframe tab pushing down on the rack, tilting it backwards. I'm going to repair the rack mounting for now and keep tabs on it as I'm comfortable that this isn't a catastrophic issue while keeping a look out for an undamaged rack.

New racks can be had for 3k, used from 800-1.5k. The main issue is figuring out what's different between all the racks in the Stinger run as there's several different model numbers. if it's a motor and sensor difference no big deal i can swap that stuff over, but if it's a gear ratio difference that can be a whole other ball of wax since this is computer controlled stuff. Tried getting one locally but that one was trashed in the accident that landed that car in the yard to begin with.