I had a mechanic tell me I needed a complete rack and pinion for my S-type 2000 3.0. I checked online and not only are they cheaper than what he quoted me but it appears that I can purchase the tie rods separately. Which would save a ton of money. I'm cautious because last year I replaced the shocks on the front because of the issue with the same mechanics and I've basically had the same issue.

The issue is they are unable to align correctly on the front and I'm getting a lot of noise and severely rough ride over potholes and bumps.

Is the replacement of the full rack a common thing for my year?

104000 miles and still rollin!

 

Er, not as far as I know. Can happen, though.

 

To answer your question, yes - our MY (well 1999.5 - 2002 MY's) have seen full rack replacements prescribed - mainly because of the tie rods "not being available" - I was in this situation and of course as you discovered - inner tie rods are readily available, whether for the S Type specifically (rockauto.com - shipped from the UK) or the Lincoln LS at an even bigger savings.

I have over 200K miles and changed my inner tie rods with success - but I have also been told (advised) to change out the entire rack and I will see even better steering and handling. (not that I have any steering/handling issues now)

It's a matter of which way you want to go...

 

Lol....thank god for that, didn't know what I was going to find when I opened this thread.

Hope the guys can help SJ

 

and a bigger issue for knocking front end or rough ride is upper control arms.

 

I would just get a Lincoln LS rack off of EBay. It will come with the inner tie rods and will be easy to swap out.

Have you ever changed inner tie rods? A bit tricky but you can DIY. With your miles and age I would look at doing the whole rack. You might change the inner tie rods only to find an internal fluid leak or other problem later on. If you are keeping the car I would change the whole thing for peace of mind.

Before you do anything be sure the sway bar bushings and end links have been replaced first! In fact unhook the sway bar end links and go for a ride where you get knocks and noise. They can make a huge amount of racket!
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