does lift and no sway bar damaging steering rack ?

[scalman]

when i bought my 01' outback steering rack was fine . that was about 3 yrs ago. since then i lifted car with strut spacers 5cm. and now not so long ago removed front sway bar as well. 

struts not changed dont know nothing about them maybe they not changed at all, could be still oems. 

so that steering rack started to feel some knocking looseness inside some time ago. back then i did had front sway bar in. its become more and more loose feeling till now. its not ends that loose. its inside steering rack. it making that knock knock sound when you drive it on some worse roads. wheel inside car handles ok still but if you lift car and move wheel to sides its knocking very clear now. its become worse last couple month.

some guy told me its becouse i lifted it and removed sway bars so now other parts have more preasure on them. not sure about that but steering rack loose its reality.

still thinking of maybe try that large bolt that have small bolt inside it . like try to tension it more. but i cant get to it as it is. guess i need to remove or at least lower steering rack down a little . 

so steering rack went bad in 3 years its normal ? i heard they pretty tuff.

[pontoontodd]

I could see the lift wearing some things out faster but not the rack and pinion gears.  If you have the car off the ground can you move the end of the rack up and down?  Mine was loose in the bushings and I replaced it to be safe.  My advice if you're going through the work of removing it, find a good used one to put in, preferably one that doesn't have rusty lines on it.  On that note, the first thing to try would be to make sure you can disconnect the lines above the crossmember on the passenger side.  If you can't do that don't bother.  Also start soaking the rack bolts and u-joint bolts with liquid wrench or some kind of penetrant now.

I think driving on rough roads will wear it out much faster than normal driving regardless of your lift or swaybars.  It has been in the car for 17 years, right?

[Blklstd]

I can't see any possible way that could harm your rack. Did you check the inner tie rod ends? Never turn the nut you were referring to. 

[idosubaru]

That sway bar has nothing to do with it.  

It seems theres a good chance this isn’t steering rack related at all.  How positive are you it is within the rack?

Outer CVs click when turning.  

Inner axle joints knock and feel loose when turning.  

Those are far more likely than steering rack. Subaru’s racks rarely have issues. 

[Robertanot]

ALL I can say is I deeply regret lifting my Subaru. It has not helped me deal with the muddy driveway as I'd hoped. It is now too dangerous to drive on the main highway here.. (17 to San Jose from Santa Cruz.) I was not told what the absence of sway bars could mean on a  high speed, curved road. So what if I can put bigger tires on it? I still bottom out daily; IF I even try to make it home. I usually park the thing and use my Mule to get to my house.

 It also sucks not to have fog lights where I ive. Yes; I know I could shell out ore money and have other ones put on. It wasn't fun to try to find a windshield washer reservoir to replace the factory one, either. I now have a car that looks bad, does not drive well on highways and basically just as useless in the mud as before. Like a jerk, I thought Subarus were still as good as the ones from the 80's. Yes; I feel stoopid... every day I look at it. I wish I still had my '87.

Edited January 13, 2020 by Robertanot
mistake

[pontoontodd]

2 hours ago, Robertanot said:

ALL I can say is I deeply regret lifting my Subaru. It has not helped me deal with the muddy driveway as I'd hoped. It is now too dangerous to drive on the main highway here.. (17 to San Jose from Santa Cruz.) I was not told what the absence of sway bars could mean on a  high speed, curved road. So what if I can put bigger tires on it? I still bottom out daily; IF I even try to make it home. I usually park the thing and use my Mule to get to my house.

 It also sucks not to have fog lights where I ive. Yes; I know I could shell out ore money and have other ones put on. It wasn't fun to try to find a windshield washer reservoir to replace the factory one, either. I now have a car that looks bad, does not drive well on highways and basically just as useless in the mud as before. Like a jerk, I thought Subarus were still as good as the ones from the 80's. Yes; I feel stoopid... every day I look at it. I wish I still had my '87.

That's too bad.  I found when my Outback was lifted and had no swaybars it would still corner well with mud tires.  In fact I usually still drove it faster than 99% of the other cars on winding roads.

If you're talking about bottoming out the floor of the car on the ground, don't worry about it.

If you're talking about bottoming out the suspension, lifting it won't help that (unless you use lift springs instead of spacers).  Removing the swaybars will make it even easier for one wheel to bottom out, so you could try putting them back on.  If you are still willing to give it a try I would try AGX struts.  They have more damping than stock so it should be more stable on winding paved roads and harder to bottom out on rough roads and they're not extremely expensive.

Taller tires will give you more clearance and more sidewall to make the car bottom out on the ground and at the suspension less often.