Play in steering rack?

[Bear77]

A little advice needed. I've seen an Audi A4 B8 2008 which I'm interested in buying with only 64000 on the clock. Two advisories on the MOT in June 2013 and June 2015 showed 'Play in steering rack inner joint(s)'.

Funnily enough there's no entry for it in the June 2014 or June 2016 or April 2017 MOT. So my question is:

Is this a known fault? Are the garage just being over zealous and finding something which isn't there? And if there is play in steering rack inner joint is this an expensive fix?

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[rum4mo]

Tricky one, not being in the garage trade, I would expect that were a maybe borderline fault was being reported by an MOT inspector, the next year and there not being any obvious signs of any rework being carried out, the next/same MOT inspector would repeat this borderline fault and so on.

So, what has happened here, has someone used inferior parts and reacted to the first advisory, and now they have worn, or has nothing been doen in that area. If I were you, and if you are up to checking this area, then do so, even rocking the steering wheel of a car with the engine not running should highlight slight inner track rod ball wear - so try that.

I've not worked on the steering rack on my S4, but I did get an advisory on my wife's previous 2003MY Polo, and I quickly reacted by replacing both rods complete with TRE from ECP using TRW branded parts (same manufacturer as factory uses) - easy job on that car once I had bought the special tools for that job! As I said, I have not even looked to see which type of rack the A4 series uses, ie fixed rack or moving rack.