Steering rack shims

[steve911]

I had to have a new rack installed under warranty on my'06 a couple of weeks ago. The dealer I use has a great reputation and a great tech. But being being human like the rest of us he can make a mistake.

what I discovered last night while changing my oil were 2 steering rack shims in the bottom of the engine compartment. I immediately recognized them as being rack shims. I then looked at the rack and it does have shims under it right now.

One shim is .040 and the other .065 thick. I looked in my shop manual and there is a specific and lengthy procedure for determining the proper shim thickness to help with bump steer. As none of the shims that are in the rack now are new, and the shims that I found are not new, I am assuming that they were part of the originals the car came with.

The manual states that only the toe needs to be reset after a rack change so I am pretty sure that was all that was done.

the question of the day is; In the grand scheme of things are those two missing shims going to cause any noticeable handling issues when my next track day comes up?

I realize that the dealer should make it right ( I havent even told them about it yet) and I am sure they will.

I am not going to be pushing the car 10/10ths either.

thanks
Steve A.

 

[MTGTS]

They are easy to put back in once you figure out which side they came from. Just loosen the 24mm bolt enough to give you some play so you can slide them in. They go under the bottom mount between the flat washer and the frame.

 

[mjorgensen Woodhouse]

If the toe was set without them I would at least have him recheck the alignment if you put them back in yourself. The changes may be small, but it does not take much of a change to make a Viper twitchy.