2011 Silverado 1500 Rack n Pinion Issues

BUCKSAUTO · October 31, 2018

Hi everyone,
My name is Shayne and I am the service manager for Bucks Auto Parts in Canada. Ive been having issues with a 2011 Silverado 1500 5.3L. We have swapped out the rack and pinion on this truck 3 times. Now before the 4th I am trying to find answers to our problem. The first 2 racks that went into this vehicle were both rebuilt. Each one of those did not last more than 2-3 months. The 3rd time we ordered directly from GM and that also did not last more than 3 months also. Now I have come to the point before giving it a go a 4th time to figure this situation out, also to get answers for my client. The actual problem is that the bushings in the rack do not last and causes the rack to have play, and bad driving. The truck has a leveling, there are no oversized tires on it. The roads we have around are fair considering we are in Quebec. The client does some hunting and work in the bush. We took this into consideration also but not convinced this is the problem. As a service manager I myself would be upset and not want to repay labor time to have this replaced again. GM does not want to cover it also, as they said they are not the ones who have done the job. They will on the other hand send a new rack and pinion, take the other back have it inspected and from there determine weather or not it is bad or good. If its good they charge me another complete rack, if bad well the part is covered. This is also a chance I do not want to take. We have a guy from a local GM dealer give us his take and he responded with "he has never encountered this problem". Anybody with any ideas or has seen this let me know what your take is please.

Thanks

volfan84 · November 1, 2018

not sure what the answer is to this problem but I have had leveling kits on many trucks and never encountered this problem. my dad also farms so we take the trucks off in fields all the time. Has the vehicle ever been in an accident?

carnau · November 1, 2018

On 10/31/2018 at 3:58 PM, BUCKSAUTO said:

Hi everyone,
My name is Shayne and I am the service manager for Bucks Auto Parts in Canada. Ive been having issues with a 2011 Silverado 1500 5.3L. We have swapped out the rack and pinion on this truck 3 times. Now before the 4th I am trying to find answers to our problem. The first 2 racks that went into this vehicle were both rebuilt. Each one of those did not last more than 2-3 months. The 3rd time we ordered directly from GM and that also did not last more than 3 months also. Now I have come to the point before giving it a go a 4th time to figure this situation out, also to get answers for my client. The actual problem is that the bushings in the rack do not last and causes the rack to have play, and bad driving. The truck has a leveling, there are no oversized tires on it. The roads we have around are fair considering we are in Quebec. The client does some hunting and work in the bush. We took this into consideration also but not convinced this is the problem. As a service manager I myself would be upset and not want to repay labor time to have this replaced again. GM does not want to cover it also, as they said they are not the ones who have done the job. They will on the other hand send a new rack and pinion, take the other back have it inspected and from there determine weather or not it is bad or good. If its good they charge me another complete rack, if bad well the part is covered. This is also a chance I do not want to take. We have a guy from a local GM dealer give us his take and he responded with "he has never encountered this problem". Anybody with any ideas or has seen this let me know what your take is please.

Thanks

I know exactly what the problem is as I have seen it several times myself. It's actually a problem with your shop and how Nice the equipment is and how nice the impact is you are using to install the part. When you are tightening the bushing down the is a lip between the rack when the bushing goes in and where it meets the frame. It's more than likely not the 18's that are causing it but the 22/24 bolt bushings? Normally people ram them down with a 1/2 impact which pulls the bushing all the way to the inside and causes more pressure on the outside allowing the rack to rock causing the bushings to go bad very very fast. If people have a cheap impact or low shop air this isn't a problem because the impact isn't strong enough to cause the issue. Which is normally the case. We ran into this at our shop and I have done a few of these coming from other shops for the same problem.

Tighten them (Drivers side) to 162lb ft and you will not have this problem again.

Tighten the 18's (Passanger side) to 74lb Ft

Here is a picture where you can kinda see the lip.