[njsteve]

Update on the steering rack: I brought it to the local GM dealer. The extended warranty covered most of it. Those warranty companies sure do nickle and dime the dealership to death. The service manager is very familiar with these warranty companies: he told me that they put you on hold for 20-30 minutes any time you call and don't pay the full repair rate and try to get you to put used parts on. They do this just to get you to give up on a claim. He was right. I was there when he was simply trying to get an update on authorizing a part and I could overhear the aggravation he was going through.

Since it is a GM dealer they wouldn't guarantee the work (only the labor) unless they installed Delco parts. The warranty company finally agreed to using Delco parts. The rack was a Delco unit ordered by the dealer. The power steering pump was a Delco unit provided by the warranty company after they balked at the high dealer price. The warranty didn't cover the pressure hose, so I got a new Delco hose from rockauto for $25. The warranty company didn't pay for the alignment and their labor rate was $10 less an hour than the dealer so I owed that difference. And there was a $50 deductible on the warranty policy. So in the end, for a $1,100 repair bill, I paid $225.