Prothe steering rack, Meyle, or used?

[srgtlord]

I need to locate a manual steering rack for my 1992 golf gl. Would anyone trust a $50 prothe  rack or should I go spend the $150 for the meyle rack?

[theman53]

I haven't heard of anyone using his rack parts. I would guess they are not good, but they maybe...I would leave it up to the job and if you think it is easy removing and replacing it go for the cheap. If not go for the good.

[R.O.R-2.0]

buy the prothe rack and see if it looks decent..

if you dont wanna dick around with it, then just buy the meyle

[rallydiesel]

Considering how much of a pain in ass switching racks in a mk2 is, I would get the proven part and be done with it. You don't want to have to do it twice.

[rs899]

...except that by now Meyle may be Chinese as well.  I would cross my fingers and buy the Prothe for that price...but I think I would be pulling the boot near the gears and checking it once in awhile....

[bajacalal]

This is what gets me about VW owners... you guys are quibbling over $100.

Do you even want to know how much stuff costs for cars that are more popular among enthusiasts? That is chump change. A rebuilt Honda rack is like $300. I have a Myele one on my car, I don't remember where it was made... I've only put about 10,000 miles on it, fine so far. The original one was pretty worn out at 275,000, I believe Myele was the OEM part but IDK if they're made to the same specs.

Also, I didn't think it was particularly difficult to r&r the r&p.

[burn_your_money]

If the rack fails it'd be pretty easy to die. I'd get something from someone with a more trustworthy track record. Or a used one...

[R.O.R-2.0]

This is what gets me about VW owners... you guys are quibbling over $100.

Do you even want to know how much stuff costs for cars that are more popular among enthusiasts? That is chump change. A rebuilt Honda rack is like $300. I have a Myele one on my car, I don't remember where it was made... I've only put about 10,000 miles on it, fine so far. The original one was pretty worn out at 275,000, I believe Myele was the OEM part but IDK if they're made to the same specs.

Also, I didn't think it was particularly difficult to r&r the r&p.

not like it really matters anymore, because i hooked up my power steering, but exactly how hard is it to change the rack on a mk2? you dont even have to drop the rear of the subframe do you?

[Dakotakid]

Baja:
how did you determine wear at that mileage? What sort of indicators? Did you attempt adjust with the adjuster on the rear?

I am legitimately curious as I have racks with 400,000 to over 500,000 miles and they just are no problem.
Did you have bad accordian boots....bad upper boot??? And, you don't live in an area with salt???

[8v-of-fury]

I had an mk1 rack last over 900,000kms. Got the car off the original owner and he said it was original, along with engine and tranny.

Transmission is now in my daily, getting thrashed about

[maxfax]

...except that by now Meyle may be Chinese as well. 

That right there is the ticket.. I'm finding that more an more reputable brand name parts are made to the same sub-par quality of cheapo crap..    But if you are buying it from a reputable seller they should be more than willing to let you know the country of origin...

[rs899]

If you told me Meyle was German, I would go for it, but their stuff is crap now.  Wasn't that way 10 years ago

[rallydiesel]

The manual rack I got was Febi.

As for swapping racks, I guess it's not that bad but I'd rather do a clutch change than a rack swap.

[Baron VonZeppelin]

Everything i've bought that came in a Meyle box i have always been pleased with its quality. Probably my most trusted brand alongside Bosch. Regardless of the country of origin, you can tell there is still a level of quality instituted and followed.

If was super strapped tight on cash or working on a clunker i'd probably consider the Prothe chinataiwan. And then try not to think about it anymore afterwards.

I bet if you placed the Meyle unit on a workbench and told a group this is $150 R&P -

Then laid Prothes on the next table and asked what they thought this one should sell for compared to the other - they'd say $50.

The items he actually sells for cheaper, are really made cheaper.
But they might last long enough if 2-5 years is the life expectancy of your car.

BYM made a good point too  ......

[bajacalal]

Baja:
how did you determine wear at that mileage? What sort of indicators? Did you attempt adjust with the adjuster on the rear?

I am legitimately curious as I have racks with 400,000 to over 500,000 miles and they just are no problem.
Did you have bad accordian boots....bad upper boot??? And, you don't live in an area with salt???

My car was from the Seattle area, it's also seen a lot of miles on dirt roads.

The rack seemed to be more worn out at some spots than others, and to make it tighter, it seemed like it would bind up at the ends. And the boots were gone and it was all full of crap. IDK, I decided it needed to be replaced so I took it off and threw it away... I didn't have it analyzed by electron microscope, LOL.

There's more to the story though, I had some front end damage after I hit what I think was a palette. After that, I had some alignment issues, I think it bent an inner rod (but the rack was probably fine) and being unhappy with how it steered in general, I rebuilt the whole front end, everything. Germanautoparts.com had a special on a complete rack setup, end-to-end, boots and all, for $150, which wasn't much more than buying the tie rods and boots individually, so it was a no-brainer.

But I would believe that one of our cars which was well cared for, lubricated, driven mostly on highways would see hundreds of thousands of miles on the original steering rack.