ellover009

I have an 1997 Acura rl and my steering rack is leaking slowly, have any of you replaced the steering rack on your RL? My friend told me that with a steering rack you always wanna go new but I am beginning to think they are rare to find and uber expensive, Acura and Acura oem sell them but I really think that those are re manufactured.
Auto zone sells an Duralast steering rack, I think those are made by atsco, they ask for $439.99 with the core trade in or $620 up front.
Rock auto online carries the A1 cardone $317.7 trade in or $517.79 up front.
acdelco one is $489.89 trade in and $664.89 up front.
I looked at my local junk yard but I have yet to see an Rl there.
There's always ebay but since they sell so many steering racks and boots for so many vehicle there's a chance they will try to sell me one that is not exactly for my car but that could work with modifications (wrong turning radius ect).

My other question is I been using Sylvania brigtstar ultra high performance but I seem to only get about a year outta them but one just burned out. I love the brightness and how it doesn't blind people like the people that don't switch to hid the proper way. I would like to know if there's any other brand that makes lights for my car that could be comparable to the brightstar but with a longer lifespan?
btw I didn't touch the light, I used gloves to carefully install them and made sure the glass part didn't make contact with anything.
Something that is avaliable everywhere would be nice since I don't want to get pulled over, one burned out today when I turned them on when I got out of work at 7.30 Pm. I managed to get by using the fog lights too, but the one on the opposite side burnt today also.
Any recommendations on the fog light? I wish they sold stronger ones too, something a little more yellower and brighter. Would it look bad or bring unnecessary attention from the law enforcement going with yellower or stronger fog lights?
I looked at hid's but unless it's done right it blinds other drivers, it's also borderline illegal if they are not oem and getting them to be passable would be quite a bit expensive if you wanna do it the right way, aka baking the headlights, separating it, then getting rid of the reflective portion of the housing, saw a video on it on you tube providing you have someone else do the manual labor if you have unskilled hands for it.


I considered moving up to something slightly newer but I still think that at 144k miles I can still get quite a bit more time outta this car and the used market for the rl is a little bit iffy atm, could get rid of mine to inherit someone else problems.

So guys tell me what you think.

3.5RLv-tec?

iTrader: (2)

I have have a 96Rl with 165k on it and the steering rack doesn't leak so I don't know much about it. I guess it better to get the one from autozone since you don't have the ship the old one in. Beside Duralast is a pretty good brand man.
For the headlight, I have a retrofitted So anyway my old bulbs were XENON something, I couldn't remember what brand is it. But it was bright and last a long time. Just buy regular Sylvania and H1 for your high beam lol.

OLD_HATCH

where is it leaking from? If it's from the hardlines they can be cleaned and tightened.

if it's from the ends I believe you can just purchase the seals yourself and take apart. It's alot less than a new or reman rack if you do the work yourself.

Ken1997TL

I wonder if the 1st gen TL steering rack could be retrofitted.. it has much better feel

ellover009

Well here's the thing, I first noticed something was wrong when I turned the wheel one day and it felt like it got disconnected for about 1 million of a second, like there was air in the steering column, my mechanic drove it and told me it was the steering rack going. Had a wheel speed sensor done at the dealer and they did a complimentary check and found it was leaking slowly, they didn't specify where but I guess they found liquid residue in the floor.

About a TL steering rack I wouldn't mess with one of those, they have a bigger turn radius which could lead to the wheel hitting the inside since it's able to turn more.

I would do this job myself but I like in an apartment, so my parking lot is outside in the wide open, I live North East so it's getting really cold and it gets darker earlier and earlier, I also lack some of the tools to do the job.

Ken1997TL

No, the 1st gen 3.2 TL actually turns even sharper at 34.8 ft vs. the RL's 36.1 ft

Steering ratio of 15.7:1 in the 3.2 TL and 16.0:1 in the RL