How to grease a hydraulic or electric steering rack

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How to lubricate a steering rack

A steering rack needs to be greased in the following situations:
  1. You hear a hammer noise and effect on the steering wheel on uneven surfaces
  2. Your car passed 150,000 Km
Proceed as follows:
  1. Put your car on a horizontal surface
  2. Turn on the engine and turn the steering wheel to the right till the end, then turn off the engine
  3. On a right-hand drive vehicle, you need to turn the steering wheel to the left
  4. Use long nose pliers to carefully detach both holding clamps of the steering rack bellows (boot)
Pull out the steering rack boot (bellows) towards the wheel to the max.
This will uncover the steering rack as shown in the right picture.
Use graphite based lubricant exclusively. The grease used for CV joints is also good to use.
Put grease on your fingers as shown and apply it to the rack while spreading it as much as possible.
Turn on the engine and gently turn the steering wheel to the opposite side till the end.
Do this two or three times switching each time the rotation and until the steering wheel reaches the end.
Put grease again and repeat the above steps
Add grease three times in total while repeating each time the steering wheel rotation procedure.

Refitting the steering rack boot (bellows)

Push the steering rack boot towards the interior of the vehicle to the max and refit first the inner clamp using the appropriate pliers depending on the clamp type.
Pull out the bellows and fix the smaller clamp.

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