Aftermarket Power Steering Option?

midwestdenaliguy · June 24

2016 GMC Sierra 1500 with a mild lift, 2" in the front and 1" in the rear. 193k miles, truck has had a lift kit it's entire life. Have always run 33" tires and don't plan to go any bigger. TL;DR - is there a beefed up aftermarket power steering rack/pinion so I'm not replacing an OEM one again due to my lift?

Guess I should consider myself lucky given how long the truck has been lifted, but over the last year I've been experiencing power steering rack and pinion issues. Started hearing a clunk on bumps and figured it was time to do new ball joints and go over the entire suspension. Nearly everything got replaced as it was all showing it's age...ball joints, shocks/struts, inner/outer tie rods, sway bar bushings/end links, new cognito UCAs to help with the lift angle, and cv axles. Noticed when I did the inner tie rods that on each side of the rack there was a loose plastic bushing inside. Replaced those and thought all was good now. Immediately got an alignment after replacing all those parts myself. They got everything in spec and I thought my clunk would be taken care of...nope still there. Figured at this point it was the power steering rack/pinion so I took it to a dealership since they would have to program it anyway if it got replaced. They said they couldn't reproduce the clunking and thought the steering felt fine. If it got worse bring it back and they'll look at it again. I've been driving it for a year now and while it hasn't gotten worse, it still feels off. Steering feels harder to do at times and I noticed premature wear on the inner part of my front tires...the passenger side was worse than the driver side. I took it back in for an alignment and they confirmed the toe was off. I do not off-road the truck and I split drive time between it and my Jeep. Not sure how the toe could be off, worse on one side, when all it's seen is pavement driving. Safe to assume all signs are pointing to new PS? I think that's the case, but open to other thoughts. Assuming I need a new PS rack/pinion, safe to assume replacing it with OEM will only lead to this being an issue again unless I get the angle identical to the stock angle? Are there beefed up PS options? I can't find any. Thanks.

CamGTP · June 24

I know of nothing else on the market because it's electric power steering. Everything must jive with the can-bus system, so the OEM racks is all you have.

midwestdenaliguy · June 25

Figured after I couldn’t find anything out there. Spoke to a couple off road shops and they weren’t sure either. OEM it is.

newdude · June 25

21 hours ago, midwestdenaliguy said:

2016 GMC Sierra 1500 with a mild lift, 2" in the front and 1" in the rear. 193k miles, truck has had a lift kit it's entire life. Have always run 33" tires and don't plan to go any bigger. TL;DR - is there a beefed up aftermarket power steering rack/pinion so I'm not replacing an OEM one again due to my lift?

I wonder if when you install a new rack if it would be worth trying some tie rod sleeves?

KRYPTONITE SOLID STEEL TIE ROD SLEEVES ZINC PLATED (KRSLV11) – Kryptonite Products

If the size in your truck description is correct, 275/70R18? The 33" diameter isn't what may have lead to accelerated wear, 98% of everything that size is an E load tire, and the Wildpeaks in that size are 60lbs per tire, so I think the added 40lbs of unsprung weight is probably what has lead to some premature issues (stock tires on a Denali are 40-42lbs each). But still, you've made it almost to 200k on the factory rack so it didn't seem to make that much change with the added weight.

My thought would be on the sleeves that it would fortify the tie rods with the added weight and better support the life of the rack.

Edited June 25 by newdude

midwestdenaliguy · June 25

41 minutes ago, newdude said:

I wonder if when you install a new rack if it would be worth trying some tie rod sleeves?

KRYPTONITE SOLID STEEL TIE ROD SLEEVES ZINC PLATED (KRSLV11) – Kryptonite Products

If the size in your truck description is correct, 275/70R18? The 33" diameter isn't what may have lead to accelerated wear, 98% of everything that size is an E load tire, and the Wildpeaks in that size are 60lbs per tire, so I think the added 40lbs of unsprung weight is probably what has lead to some premature issues (stock tires on a Denali are 40-42lbs each). But still, you've made it almost to 200k on the factory rack so it didn't seem to make that much change with the added weight.

My thought would be on the sleeves that it would fortify the tie rods with the added weight and better support the life of the rack.

My signature is outdated, but your point still stands. I ran those wildpeaks for about 70k miles then they started cupping. Can't complain about those miles. Put new michelin defender ltx ms 275/70r18 on and those are the fronts that prematurely wore on the inside (passenger worse than driver side). Only about 20k miles on those. Had an alignment done when the michelins were put on due to the cupping of the wildpeaks. Michelins are 51 pounds a tire at that size. So despite all new suspension parts, an alignment, and me double checking everything was torqued properly, the tires ended up with bad toe wear. It's gotta be the PS at this point right?

I'm putting Cooper Road and Trail AT tires on that are 42 pounds each (michelins are vibrating like crazy), so hopefully the lower weight tires won't wear out a new OEM PS. Truck won't be driven until I can get the new PS installed.

midwestdenaliguy · June 25

2 hours ago, newdude said:

I wonder if when you install a new rack if it would be worth trying some tie rod sleeves?

KRYPTONITE SOLID STEEL TIE ROD SLEEVES ZINC PLATED (KRSLV11) – Kryptonite Products

If the size in your truck description is correct, 275/70R18? The 33" diameter isn't what may have lead to accelerated wear, 98% of everything that size is an E load tire, and the Wildpeaks in that size are 60lbs per tire, so I think the added 40lbs of unsprung weight is probably what has lead to some premature issues (stock tires on a Denali are 40-42lbs each). But still, you've made it almost to 200k on the factory rack so it didn't seem to make that much change with the added weight.

My thought would be on the sleeves that it would fortify the tie rods with the added weight and better support the life of the rack.