I was wondering if anyone could give me a second opinion on this.
I was getting a fluid change at a dealership and they called to tell me that "the steering rack is starting to leak and would I want it replaced for $1800?", I said no, can't afford that, and what would the timeline be to which the dealer tech said "keep an eye on the fluid and when it starts to get low". I have not noticed a change in handling, still fine, and no odd noises or grinding or trouble steering. A couple posts on other forums mentioned the dealerships saying the same thing, but then they went for years just topping up the PS reservoir every few months, but most of them said their cars were around 200 thousand kms while mine is just over 280 thousand kms. Would this be a serious concern with just the leak or is it chill to still drive it with an eye on the PS until the steering is noticeably affected?

 

I'd at least change the fluid and add a bottle of stop leak.

 

jack the car up and see how much it's actually leaking out of the boots. if it's a drop here and there, then just keep adding fluid (don't even bother with stop-leak junk). if it's pissing it out, then yeah, look into a rack change. $1800 is a highway robbery for that job, tho.

 

I think $1800 is what the dealership quoted for replacement of my steering rack on my ‘07 G35x back in 2013. It was replaced under Infiniti Elite extended warranty

 

Ah, the Elite warranty. It's an excellent, comprehensive coverage. I used it as a negotiating tool when I bought my trade-in sedanX from an Infiniti dealer. Got them to throw it into the deal. There's terrific markup on the coverage, and the dealer knows they'll be reimbursed for any warranty work. It's not a hard ask for them to agree to.

 

Unless it's making a big mess I wouldn't worry about it, just keep the reservoir full. There are seals at the edges of the rack where the inner tie rod connect that eventually wear out, won't affect performance but if the mess is an issue you can use a gear oil hand pump (like for a bottle of gear oil) and suck out the reservoir and refill with a power steering fluid with stopleak. That will slow the leak down quite a bit and buy you another 75k miles or so. The entire car will probably be close to the end of it's life at that point anyways.