A recent failure of the steering rack on my car has somewhat caused be to be phobic about another imminent failure. I'll try to cut a long story short. Basically I am curious to know if anyone has had experiences with the failure of the steering rack in your vehicle. If yes, is your vehicle running on electric power steering and at what mileage did the steering rack fail.

From my conversation with an experienced mechanic, I was made to understand that the steering rack failure is common with all vehicles which operate on Electric Power Steering, and the lifespan is about 8 to 10 years. He mentioned that vehicles with hydraulic power steering rarely have steering rack failures. Is this true?

The recent failure of the steering rack in my vehicle has also suggested that a half-cut steering rack is not a wise option for the replacement of the faulty or broken steering rack as in my experience, it does not last long. The steering rack of my vehicle a Ford Focus mk3 malfunctioned last year when it was 8 years old with mileage 70,000+ km. During that time, the steering rack could not be turned when the engine was started and the error message came up on the display, it was towed to the workshop for the replacement of the steering rack. However, just after 8 months, the (half-cut) steering rack failed again this year and this time, it was much dangerous. It happened when I was driving the car on the road, and the message suddenly came up and the steering wheel cannot be turned! This was when the car was moving at speed on the road and the steering wheel became very stiff and cannot be turned easily. I have to use all my energy to steer the vehicle to the emergency lane. This is extremely dangerous and can cause an accident. If it's a senior citizen, he/she might not have the energy to steer the vehicle to the emergency lane due to the very stiff steering wheel, and the vehicle might need to stop in the middle of the road or highway.

I am not sure if this is an inherent issue with the Ford Focus mk3 in that the steering rack fails rather early, in my case going into the 8th year with low mileage. I was made to understand that all other Focus mk3 also has this same problem and some owners experienced even earlier failure in their 3rd or 4th year. So back to the question. Does anyone here experience a steering rack failure in your vehicle, and how was the situation like? In my case it was a dangerous experience. Does this happen in all vehicles which come with EPS? Some checks on the internet revealed that the steering rack has a lifespan and will somehow fail at some point of time, and the average lifespan is around 160,000 km depending on usage pattern.

Perhaps I made a mistake of going with half-cut steering racks which have a short lifespan. A new steering rack will likely have a longer lifespan but it's fairly costly (RM13k at service centre for the Focus mk3), lower price at outside workshops.

how much to refurbish the existing one? 

Terrible that this problem is also prevalent in Honda vehicles such as Accord, Civic, CRV and City. I wonder if Toyota Corolla Altis also show this steering rack malfunction which will cause the steering wheel to lock up? Any cases that you might be aware of? As you have known, the Toyota Corolla Altis is already at the top in my shortlist..

Thanks.

I have always regarded Honda vehicles assembled here in Malaysia as being low quality mainly due to rattling noises in the cabin having sat in the older Honda Civic and Accords of my colleagues and business associates throughout the years, hence they are always scratched off the list. Somehow, the Accord 2.4 which I sat in show more rattling noises than the Proton Preve Turbo which I owned which is surprising. In fact, every Honda cars I have sat in will exhibit a higher than normal rattling sound inside the cabin. The design of the vehicle is good but I suspect the local factory churning out the CKD is not up to standard which is surprising since CBU from Thailand or Philippines can produce good quality vehicles but over here with Honda it's down. 

Now that I know the steering wheel lockup is also affecting Honda vehicles, it's surely a no from me.

For car enthusiasts, now Civic turbo got no competition since Hyundai stop selling Elantra Sport, Ford stop selling Ecoboost Focus, and VW stop selling 1.8 TSI Passat (some jump on price, but still sub-200k).

Until Toyota decide to put a detune 1.6 turbo 3-pots about 200hp to regular Altis, it is still no competition for Civic turbo.

What do we have if want to upgrade from Civic turbo, without horsepower deficit? Golf GTi? 320i? 2023 BRZ? All are 200k+ car.

stray bullet - 208GTi/308GTi, are they still selling or even if yes how many dare to buy?

Too wishful. UMW more likely to fit a low tuned Atkinson cycle of M20 

Corolla facelift, what news did you receive? Everyone including the sales advisors or even Toyota customer service are clueless when I enquired earlier this month. Will it be a hybrid? If not, what are the differences in comparison to the current Corolla model which is not available for sale anymore since earlier this month? The current high spec Corolla after discount was selling at RM130k+ and if they bump it up to RM150k without any major improvements, Toyota will have difficulty marketing the new model.

cannot expect anything advanced or new from UMW bread and butter models lah

UMW understands our market well, the reason people buy Toyota within the price range is for - Comfort, Reliability and RV, that's it, everything else is optional

and people who mostly buy those models (eg: Vios, Corolla) tend to service their cars outside once the warranty period is over, the dinosaur 1.5L and 1.8L NA engines are perfect for this case since almost every ah beng workshop under the tree is familiar with it

that being said, putting aside powertrain. UMW Toyota models nowadays are actually pretty well spec'ed especially when it comes to safety. I still prefer Toyota Safety Sense compared to Honda Sensing or Mazda iActive Sense. And for some reason Honda in SEA market is still keeping Lanewatch instead of regular BSM + RCTA like other markets. 

my only gripe with UMW is their OEM infotainment and the way they integrate it into the dashboard aka CRT TV