Steering rack diagnostics at shop - excessive play?
 

Hi,

I took the Boxster to a local reputable shop for alignment a few months ago. They did a thorough inspection on the car (which I didn't ask for) and found a couple issues including the steering rack being faulty. They said it had an excessive play and refused to do the alignment (they charged me for half of the labor). They gave me a qoute for the replacement and for all the jobs that they thought was necessary. They included pictures and videos, including this one below that they think demonstrates the excessive play:

https://youtube.com/shorts/yC4KmsWmzf8?feature=share

When I looked at the video I found it a bit odd, also I could not detect any obvious play, but I thought, OK, they are the pros, they know what they are doing, also pretty much every single main part turns out to be faulty in this car, so I just ordered a low-mile rack from ebay and swapped them out. When I inspected the old one again, on the bench, I saw no problem with it, no play in any direction, no leak, tie rods also fine...

Long story short, I took the car back, this time they were able to do the alignment. I made a note about the apparently perfectly functional old steering rack which I took with me also. They didn't look at it, they didn't really understand my concern and asked why I brought the car back if I didn't trust their judgement in the first place.

Anyways, I learnt how to replace the rack in the Boxster and the car runs fine and straight, which is a good thing. On the other hand though, it appears to me that I wasted quite a bit of time on a misdiagnosed problem and replaced a part that was not necessary. I wonder what had happened if I had told them to do all the suggested work - they would just have replaced the rack like I did and charged me accordingly?

How do you guys see this issue?

Name them...

To be honest, from the video i can't see anything wrong with the steering rack. Also to me the video doesn't make sense at all.

I don't see the point in that because I can't tell for sure they were trying to inetntionally rip me off. Most likely they were not. Just the technician identified a number of things faulty in the suspension and brakes (not affecting the steering) and saw something else also there even though it wasn't there. He made a stupid video about it and the rest of the team just went with the flow.

Exactly. When I went back after months to get the alignment finally done, I told the guy at the front desk that I think steering rack was fine and there was no point to replace it, but I replaced it anyway. He opened my case in the computer and pointed out this video, showing me this huge play. I was like, what play? Do you realize that the steering column is rotating in the background accordingly? Then he was thinking a bit about what he was looking at and said they were gonna look at the rack in the trunk.

After 2 hours I went back, the car was done, he said nothing about this, so I brought it up which ended up yelling at each other for a good 10 mins then I paid and left.

Basically they did what I paid for, but they didn't address a customer's concern, which is not very professional. They didn't look at the rack either...

Is there is a possibility that the rack mounting bolts were loose..?
.

If you must take a car to a shop and you have an experience which you question.
Then the best thing to do is take the car to a different shop and get a second opinion.
But do not tell the second shop anything about your visit to the first shop.
Then compare diagnosis from both shops.

Ther is, but they weren't loose.

Usually I don't take my cars to shops because I hate to spend time on booking appointments, leaving the car there, finding a ride back home, then taking it back again when there's something wrong with it. Also, I don't like to spend money (and on a Porsche a lot) on something I can fix on my own, unless I can save a lot of time. In this case I went to a shop because I wouldn't have been able to do the alignment myself, yet I wasted a some time, which is not a big deal because now at least I know that everything is fine in the front suspension and steering. But yes, taking the car to a different shop and ask for a second opinion would have been a reasonable choice to make, as you suggested. Hindsight is always 20/20.