Steering parts in the UAE: tie rods, steering racks and power steering pumps

Steering is a chain, and a request for a steering part can mean any link in it. The driver turns the steering wheel, a column carries that turn down to a steering gear, the gear turns it into sideways movement, and tie rods pass the movement out to the wheels. Wikipedia's account of steering lists the same chain: the wheel and column, the gear (rack and pinion, recirculating ball, or the older worm and sector), and the linkage of tie rods, steering knuckle and ball joints, with a pitman arm and idler arm on systems built around a steering box. Power steering sits on top of that chain and adds assistance, either hydraulic or electric.

This site has so far filed steering parts under suspension, because the parts catalogue groups axle mounting, steering and wheels into one system and that system is mapped to the suspension page. That is why steering needs a page of its own. It covers tie rods and tie rod ends, steering racks and boxes, power steering pumps and fluid, and columns and shafts. It does not cover steering wheel covers or aftermarket steering wheels, which are accessories, and it does not cover wheel alignment or workshop repair, because this is a parts page. The springs, dampers, arms and bushes of the suspension are on the suspension page.

The table below sets out the parts a buyer may mean, where each one sits and who describes it that way. The rest of the page takes them in turn: the tie rods first, because tie rod is the most-searched of the steering-system parts this page covers in our keyword data, then the gear, then the power assist, the fluid, the column and the routes by which a replacement can be supplied.

febi, the German parts maker, describes a tie rod as two parts: an inner tie rod and a tie rod end. The inner tie rod is connected to the steering, and its main function is to convey the steering motion to the wheels. The outer tie rod end transfers that movement from the steering to the wheel and lets the wheel move relative to the vertical axis. Delphi describes the tie rod end as the part that connects the steering knuckle of the wheel to the steering rack. In the UK the same part is generally called a track rod, and Wikipedia notes that automotive tie rods differ from structural ones by both pushing and pulling.

That leaves several names to untangle when a seller quotes. Tie rod can mean the outer end on its own, the inner rod on its own, or the two together as an assembly. Track rod is the British name for the same family. Rack end is a name CTR uses for the inner joint that threads into the rack, and 555 lists rack ends alongside tie rod ends. febi's own note on replacement is worth reading closely: changing the tie rod is needed when the tie rod end or the inner tie rod end is worn, if those two components are not available separately. Whether you can buy one joint or must buy the pair depends on how the maker catalogues it, so ask the seller exactly what the number covers.

What wears is the ball joint inside each end. febi says a typical sign of wear in an inner tie rod is play in the ball joint, which can come from a worn plastic shell in the socket, and that one frequent cause is repeated and excessively hard mounting of kerbs. For the outer end, febi says a worn one can lead to abnormal tyre wear patterns and erratic steering feel, and Delphi says a loose tie rod end affects steering and handling, especially in cornering. The rubber boot over the joint is what keeps moisture and dirt out, and febi calls it vitally important for service life.

A tie rod is not a link rod. In our keyword data, the pages that rank for searches such as link rod, front link rod and stabilizer rod are stabiliser link pages, not tie rod pages. febi describes the stabiliser link, also called a sway bar link, as the part that connects the stabiliser bar to the body and, as part of the suspension, reduces roll in corners. febi says a knocking noise from the front axle on uneven road can be a sign of a defective stabiliser link, and that it can usually be replaced without much effort and normally needs no wheel alignment afterwards. It is a suspension part and is covered on the suspension page. If a seller says link rod, ask them to name the part, so a tie rod is not quoted when a stabiliser link is meant, or the other way round.

febi says the functional dimension of a tie rod, meaning its required length, has to correspond precisely to the original, and that if the length differs from the vehicle maker's specification, problems could arise during wheel alignment. For a buyer that means a tie rod is matched to a specification, not to a look. Two tie rods that look alike on a counter are not necessarily the same part.

MOOG's own tech tip on Ford Super Duty trucks shows how narrow the match can be. It says trucks with the Wide Track front axle use a tie rod end with a larger thread diameter than trucks without it, 1-9/16 inch against 1-3/8 inch, and that the two are not interchangeable. Same truck line, same model name, two parts. The example is American, but the lesson carries: a model name does not settle a tie rod end, and the old part or the chassis number does.

What arrives in the box also differs. febi sells tie rods and tie rod ends as ProKits with steering boots, and says the nuts and bolts a repair needs are often not included with the single replacement part, while its ProKits add them. Whether a quote includes the boot and its clamps is the first thing to settle.

MOOG makes a different point about the joint itself. Its tech tip says most original-equipment chassis parts are non-serviceable, while its own parts have a grease fitting and a boot with a relief valve, so that new grease flushes old grease and contamination out when the joint is greased. Greaseable or sealed is therefore a real difference between two tie rod ends that fit the same car, and it belongs on the quote.

None of this needs you to measure anything. The old part, its boot and any number on it, photographed, together with the chassis number, let a supplier check the number against the right position. Say which wheel it came off, and whether it was on the left or the right.

The steering system on one nameplate is not fixed. It changes by generation, by variant and sometimes by axle, and each change can change which pump, rack or tie rod end is the right one. The table gives sourced examples. None of them is a list of what your car has. They are here to show which questions a supplier needs answered.

The wider market problem, that GCC-specification, US-specification and Japanese-import cars can share a model name and carry different parts, is set out on the suspension page, and the same logic applies here. The chassis number is what settles it, and the guide on finding parts by VIN explains how to read one.

Wikipedia's account of steering gives the two designs in plain terms. In a rack and pinion, the steering wheel turns a pinion gear that moves a rack back and forth to steer the wheels. In a recirculating-ball gear, large ball bearings sit between a screw and a nut, which Wikipedia says gives a greater mechanical advantage and has led to its use on larger, heavier vehicles.

Wikipedia's separate article on the recirculating-ball gear says it is commonly found in older automobiles, off-road vehicles and some trucks, that some upmarket makers such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz used it into the 1990s, and that most newer cars use the more economical rack and pinion. It names the Jeep Wrangler, the Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster and the Lada Niva as modern vehicles that still do.

The two gears do not share linkage. A rack passes the movement out through the inner tie rods. A steering box moves a pitman arm, and ZF Aftermarket's steering linkage range lists centre links, idler arms and pitman arms alongside tie rod ends and bellows. 555's brand record on this site makes the same point from the buyer's side: idler and pitman arms belong to older and heavier systems that do not use a rack, and rack-based parts do not translate to them. So the first question about a steering part is which gear the car has, and the second is which linkage parts hang from it.

Buyers and sellers do not always use the words box and rack the same way, so name the gear and send a photograph of it as well. Where a vehicle uses a steering box, a quote for a rack is a quote for the wrong gear.

A steering rack is not one measurement. Cardone, a US remanufacturer, publishes a specification list for each of its remanufactured racks, and one of them, part 22-340, shows how many separate details a unit is matched on. We use it as an example of the kind of detail a rack has. It is a US part, we are not using it as a fitment, and nothing here says it fits any car sold in the UAE.

Three lines in that listing matter to any buyer. It is listed as hydraulic, which is a different unit from an electric rack. It includes inner tie rods and a sealing kit, and it says outer tie rods are not included, so the outer ends are a separate purchase. And its package contents are the rack and pinion, a mounting bushing, a sealing kit and an instruction sheet, while mounting brackets are listed as not included.

The rest of the list is dimensional: a grooved input shaft, the shaft diameter and spline count, the end-to-end length, the total turns lock to lock, and the diameter and gender of the inlet and outlet line fittings that connect the rack to the hoses. A rack for an electric system would not have those hose fittings, because there is no hydraulic circuit for them to connect to. Every one of those details has to match for the rack to go on the car, which is why a supplier asks for the chassis number and a photograph, not the model.

Wikipedia describes three families. A hydraulic system uses a belt-driven pump to create pressure in hydraulic fluid, which flows through hoses to a cylinder that assists the steering. An electro-hydraulic system uses the same hydraulic assistance but replaces the engine-driven pump with an electric motor, which avoids running hydraulic lines from the engine to the steering rack. An electric system, which Wikipedia calls EPS, replaces the hydraulics entirely with an electric motor and an electronic control unit, with sensors detecting position and torque in the steering column.

That decides what you can buy. Pump, belt, reservoir, hoses and fluid belong to the hydraulic system. An electro-hydraulic system has the motor, pump, fluid and hoses. An electric system has the motor, the control unit and the torque sensor. A car with an electric system has no power steering pump and no power steering fluid, so a request for either on such a car is a mistake to catch before the order is placed.

JTEKT, a steering maker, lists several electric layouts, and they are different units. In the column type the assist sits at the column. In the pinion type it sits at the pinion shaft in the engine room, and a dual-pinion type separates the assist function from the steering wheel shaft. The rack-parallel type and the rack direct drive type assist the rack itself. JTEKT also lists an electric-pump hydraulic type, in which the hydraulic pump is driven under computer control. Where the motor sits decides whether the part you are ordering is a column unit, a pinion unit or a rack.

If the assist fails, Wikipedia says the steering is arranged to keep working, although the wheel will feel heavier, because hydraulic and electric systems both keep a mechanical link between the steering wheel and the wheels.

How do you tell which system a car has? The owner's manual states it. As a rough check, a fluid reservoir under the bonnet belongs to a hydraulic or electro-hydraulic system, going by the component lists above, but the manual or the chassis number is the reliable answer, because makers have changed systems within one model line, as the examples earlier show.

On a hydraulic system the pump is the part that makes the pressure. Wikipedia says it is typically a gerotor or rotary vane pump driven by the engine, and that an electro-hydraulic system replaces the engine drive with an electric motor. JTEKT lists power steering pumps, hydraulic hoses and reservoir tanks as separate products in its steering range, which is a useful reminder that a quote for a pump is a quote for a pump, not for the circuit around it.

ZF Aftermarket says its TRW business can remanufacture steering racks, pumps and column drives and offer them from stock, and that its in-house testing processes are what make its remanufactured steering systems perform. So a pump can arrive new, remanufactured or used, and the route matters more here than for a simple part. The routes are covered further down.

The pump is only one reason a car loses assist, and we are a parts seller, not a diagnostician. The point for buyers is narrower: do not order a pump for a car that has an electric system, and do not order one until a workshop has said the pump is the part.

Wikipedia says the common working liquids in hydraulic power steering are mineral-oil based and are similar to, and in some cases the same as, automatic transmission fluid. That is where the confusion starts: some systems take a fluid sold as power steering fluid, some take an ATF, and some take a hydraulic oil that carries its own maker's approval number.

The fluid makers' own pages show the spread. Liqui Moly's central hydraulic system oil is described as ideally suited for steering systems and lists approvals including BMW 81 22 9 407 758, Ford WSS-M2C 204-A, MB 345.0 and 345.1, VW G 002 000 and G 004 000, and ZF TE-ML 02K. Its ATF III is described as suitable for steering systems among other uses and is recommended for requirements including Dexron III G and Ford Mercon, and its Top Tec ATF 1100 lists Dexron III G and III H, Ford Mercon and MB 236.1 among its approvals and recommendations. Those are three different bottles for three different families of requirement.

Every one of those pages carries the same kind of instruction. For the central hydraulic oil it reads that the specifications and instructions from the assembly or vehicle manufacturer must be followed, and that the optimum effect is only reached when the product is used unmixed. The ATF pages say that the operating requirements of the vehicle, transmission and hydraulic system manufacturers must be followed, and the Top Tec page says the product works best when used on its own, without mixing.

So the fluid is ordered by specification. The owner's manual names the requirement, and the supplier needs that wording, not just the words power steering fluid. We do not name a fluid for your car on this page, because we have not read your maker's specification for it; we are showing what the fluid makers themselves say about how the specifications work.

In the UAE search data we hold, the same category of product is searched as power steering fluid, steering oil and power steering oil, so a seller may use any of those words. They are names for the category, not specifications.

Wikipedia describes the steering column as the device that connects the steering wheel to the steering mechanism, and says it houses the multi-function switch, the column lock, the column wiring and shrouds. It describes the collapsible column, built so that it collapses in a heavy frontal impact, notes that columns can offer height or length adjustment, and says modern steering locks are engaged either by a mechanical ignition key or electronically from the vehicle's control unit. JTEKT lists steering columns and intermediate shafts among its aftermarket products, describing the shafts as designed for torsional rigidity.

A Stellantis US service record for one steering-wheel-position fault, case S2219000004 of September 2022, shows how closely the pieces are tied together. Its procedure reaches the steering wheel by removing the air bag assembly, and it tells the technician to replace either the column or the steering wheel depending on whether tick marks line up, then to run a steering alignment and a steering angle calibration routine. The record is for Stellantis vehicles and does not name a model in what we read, so it is an example of the pattern, not a rule for every car. The pattern is that the column, the wheel, the sensors and the air bag are one system, which is why parts in this area are quoted by chassis number and by symptom, not by name.

The part you need may be the column assembly, the intermediate shaft with its joints, the column switch or lock, or the steering wheel itself. Say which, and send a photograph. We do not cover steering wheel covers or aftermarket steering wheels on this page.

On an electric system the unit carries the motor, the control unit and the torque sensor. Wikipedia says the sensors detect the position and the torque in the steering column and a computer module applies assistive torque through the motor. Toyota says the electric system is also what lets the new Land Cruiser offer Lane Tracing Assist, a driver-assistance feature, so on a car like that the steering unit is part of the safety systems as well as the steering.

That is why a replacement unit can need more than bolting on. A Stellantis US service record, case S2219000003 of August 2022, titled calibrating steering angle sensor after electric power steering replacement, says that after replacement of an EPS the wiTECH tool must be used to align the proxi and calibrate the steering angle sensor. The record is for Stellantis vehicles, so it is an example of the principle, not a rule for every car. But it gives the question to put to a supplier: does the unit need coding or calibration on my car, and does the workshop have the tool?

We have not found a published source that tells a UAE buyer whether a given replacement unit arrives coded, so ask, and get the answer in writing before the order.

The UAE vocabulary of genuine, OEM, commercial and copy is explained in the guide on OEM against aftermarket parts, and the guide on buying used parts explains the used trade, so this section covers only what is particular to steering. The routes matter most on racks and pumps, which ZF says it remanufactures and which Cardone's listing shows for racks.

Remanufactured means different things to different makers, so ask what was done. Cardone's listing says its remanufactured rack has 100 per cent new O.E.-style o-rings and seals, new spool valve seals and rack donut seals, and is tested for hydraulic flow, leakage and performance. ZF says the same specifications apply as with original equipment in its remanufacturing, and that hardware and software improvements are incorporated. Both are the remanufacturer's own statements about its own units. Neither tells you what a seller's unbranded unit has had done.

A remanufactured unit starts from an old one. Cardone's page says it buys cores back from customers, which is why a supplier may ask for yours. Ask before ordering whether the old unit must be returned and in what condition.

A used rack, pump or column is a different thing. It has not been remanufactured, and its internal condition cannot be judged from a photograph. That is our reasoning rather than a manufacturer's statement, and we found no maker that describes a used steering unit as restored. A used part can still be the sensible choice for a bracket or a casting, and the used-parts guide covers where that trade happens, but for a unit with seals and bearings, ask for the donor car, the number and written return terms.

These are brands whose own pages we have read for the brand pages on this site. They are not a ranking and not an availability list: the pages record what each maker publishes, and they do not say which UAE shop holds which brand. Ask the supplier for the brand and the number on the box.

We found no UAE data on how long steering parts last, how often they fail, or what share of failures dust or heat cause, so this page states none. What exists is what the makers say about the parts themselves, and what follows from it for a hot, dusty country, which we label as reasoning.

What the makers say. febi says tie rods can be deformed by shocks such as driving over potholes, excessive kerb contact or an accident, and that repeated, excessively hard mounting of kerbs is a frequent reason an inner tie rod's ball joint wears. febi says the rubber boot on its ball joints protects the assembly against moisture and road debris and resists heat, oil and weathering, and that the boot on a tie rod end is vitally important for service life, to avoid corrosion and play. MOOG says the relief valve in its boots shuts out moisture and debris while releasing excess grease, and in a separate tech tip on one Ford and Lincoln model says the original design trapped debris and moisture in the bearing, which caused ball stud corrosion and wear.

What follows, as reasoning. Our roads are hot and dusty, and kerbs and speed bumps are part of daily driving, so the points the makers stress, an intact boot and a joint that is sealed or greased, are likely to matter here. That is an inference from the makers' statements, not a measurement. It is a reason to look at the boots when a tie rod or a rack is being inspected, and to ask for a boot and clamps on the quote.

A symptom is a reason to have the car inspected, not a reason to buy a part, and nothing here is a diagnosis. What the table does is link a symptom described by a maker to the part a supplier will need named, so the right part is quoted once a workshop has done the diagnosing.

A good request lets a supplier quote the right unit the first time. Send your chassis number; the part you think you need and where it is; photographs of the old part from two angles, showing any number or label, its boot and its fittings; which wheel the part came from, front or rear and left or right, and which side the steering wheel is on; whether the car has hydraulic or electric power steering, if you know; the engine; and what you want, new, remanufactured or used.

Then check what the quote names: whether it is the outer end, the inner rod or the pair; whether the boot and clamps are included; for a rack, whether the inner tie rods and seals are included and whether the outer ends are; for a pump, whether the reservoir and hoses are included; for fluid, the specification and not just the name; whether an old unit must be returned; whether an electric unit needs coding; and the brand, number and warranty written on the invoice. Ask for the answer to each in writing.

We publish no steering part prices because we hold no dated quotes, and the figure depends on the route, the brand and the car. Suppliers matched to your chassis number quote against the details above.