00 Intrepid: Replaced Rack and Pinion (Steering Gear)

Greetings,
I am passing this along as one of "those" individuals who experienced
steering problems with their Intrepid.
This steering system episode I believe has it's origins in the beginning of
January 04. There were 60,031 miles on the car. In January, the steering
wheel stuck 3 separate (different days, different circumstances, etc.)
times. You would turn to the right, then it stopped. You could then turn
to the left and then back to the right and all would seem as normal. I had
some maintenance issues so I decided to have the dealer look at the steering
system. He had said the rack needed replacing which translated in to big
bucks. I received some advise on this newsgroup to have the power steering
fluid changed. I did and the problem never reoccurred.
Then about 3 weeks ago, my wife and I began to hear rattles in the front
end. I had first thought that it was some "suspension creaking" while going
over bumps like railroad tracks. The "creek" occurrences where inconsistent
so I discounted them. Then a couple days ago, I could get them to occur
regularly on a smooth road by putting the car in neutral and then back into
drive by inducing a "jerking" motion.
I decided something had to be done about it because we are selling car
because we are transferring to Korea. So I looked up the TSBs on Alldata
and found
TSB 19-01-00, Steering Gear/Front Suspension - Rattle.
MODELS:
1998 - 2000 (LH) Concorde/lntrepid/LHS/300M
SYMPTOM/CONDITION:
Rattle sound coming from front of vehicle. More noticeable at slow speeds on
rough road or over speed bumps. May sound like a front suspension component
This was exactly what was occurring with my vehicle. So I printed it off
and took it and the car to the dealer. $1,600 later I have a new Rack and
Pinion (steering gear) (part number 5003933-AB). Mileage: 62,403.
I just wanted to provide this info in case someone else experiences the same
symptoms. I did check out the NHTSA web site and was disappointed with the
number of steering failures in the 2000 Intrepid vs. the Accord or Camry.
Sigh.

P.S. The car is still for sale...not taking it to Korea. Interested?
$9,300 in the Hampton Roads/Tidewater/Norfolk/Virginia Beach area. Can
Email you sticker and all the info I know about the car. Specific post with
picture is on the buy/sell/trade section of www.dodgeintrepid.net forum or
through this hyperlink:
http://www.dodgeintrepid.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37427

 

Rich,

Thanks for passing the information along for everyone's learning.

Good luck selling your 'trep when you need to, and the best to you and
your wife in Korea - thank her for her service for me (I read your
thread on DI.net).

Bill Putney
(to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with "x")

 

Bill,
Thanx much!!
Rich