Talk to me about Mk3.5-Mk4 steering racks.

[Nicklouse]

Seem to be the same and also used on a whole pile of other VAG cars.

Are they a straight swap or do they need coding?

Any one bought a reconditioned one ? If yes where from and how was it?

Not going down the new original route as very costly.

Might look at a low mileage used but what have been your experience ?

[Nicklouse]

OPPs picking one up tomorrow.

[RatFink]

I'm a perennial tinkerer and have been wondering about seeing if there's a slightly tighter ratio rack that'll fit the 1st facelift. Is it the same rack as in the mk5 golfs? Or is it more linked to Touran stuff?

[Nicklouse]

No idea but the later electric are used on quite a few VAG cars.

Stuff for overhauling.

[Nicklouse]

Leant a few things about racks.

Change the rack and you need to visit a VW commercial service center to have it coded to suit the van characteristics unfortunately it does not seem to be possible with VCDS.

More powerful specs had a map to help control torque steer.

So currently I have two orange warning lights and VCDS says there is no/basic adaptation on the rack. Getting the tracking done in the morning and if they can’t do the adaptation, they don’t think they can, it is VW next week. The steering currently feels very light with no feed back.

Finally I was not aware of the real need for the subframe locating pins. Set on the way as I type. Can be bought for about £20.

[Nicklouse]

Rack has now been coded in and the lights are off on the dash.

But after half an hour they came to me saying they could not talk to the car, don’t know what the issue was but they did manage to in the end.

£158 well spent.