[-TrailRunner0518-]

I have a 2018 can am defender hd10 max xt with about 1650 kms on it. Yesterday, me and my father went on a little drive (8kms up the railbed and back). When we got back I took it over to the garage to park it but could hear a awful and loud grinding/cracking noise coming from the rack and pinion no matter how far I turned the wheel, how fast or slow I drive, or what direction, If the wheel is being turned its grinding. I jacked up the front to see if there was play in the tires and nothing although I can see the wheels jerk a bit when it makes the noise. I am starting to think that maybe the top of a gear on the worm gear in the rack and pinion has chipped off and is grinding somewhere in there. It hasn't made the noise before so it had to of happened in the 8kms. My father drives the sxs 70% of the time (as I prefer the cheaper quad I can be wreckless with) and I drive it 20% of the time, we aren't hard on it at all but we put the gas down every once and a while so there's no way it was caused by abuse. The other 10% of the time it's used as a utility vehicle on jobsites (mostly to get around and hauling some material) nothing that would harm the rack and pinion. If this was caused from "abuse" then can am needs to dump Kane (the rack and pinion manufacturer) for another company. How serious is this? If it's something that could leave me stranded then I'll have to take it to the stealership but if it's minor I'll wait for it to get worse then I'll take it to the stealership, it's still under warranty so it's covered but it's not a quick drive there.

 

[CanAmRancher1]

What usually goes bad in these rack and pinions is the upper bearing on the worm gear. It should be under warranty and I would get it fixed asap because you will lose steering if it fails. I have put over 10000 miles on a couple of defenders and have one defender right now with over 10000 miles that the rack and pinion is going out on. This is actually the first one that I have had trouble with but it has been through a lot of water this year.

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[-TrailRunner0518-]

What usually goes bad in these rack and pinions is the upper bearing on the worm gear. It should be under warranty and I would get it fixed asap because you will lose steering if it fails. I have put over 10000 miles on a couple of defenders and have one defender right now with over 10000 miles that the rack and pinion is going out on. This is actually the first one that I have had trouble with but it has been through a lot of water this year.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

Yep, I think you're right. It does sound like a bad bearing and I can see the top of the shaft moving up and down. We did go through some water when we first left so I wonder if that could have anything to do with it. It hasn't been used in a while so I wonder if the seal dried out letting water in?

You've got quite a few miles on your defenders, hopefully mine lasts that many!

 

[Greg_schipp]

Did you ever find the issue with your rack and pinion. My defender just started the same thing. Was this covered under warranty?

 

[-TrailRunner0518-]

Hey, sorry for the late response. Yes I did take it in to the stealership under warranty and they replaced the whole rack and pinion assembly. Pretty sure the 2018 defenders had a bad run of rack and pinions as they no longer sell them, just 2017 and 2019.