Hyundai Repair: Power Steering in Sonata, extended warranty company, leak fluid

Question
My 2000 Sonata - which I've kept in immaculate condition - lost its power steering yesterday due to fluid leak. Fluid was low - replacing it solved problem until fluid leaked again - I found leak on passenger front side of car coming out of metal tube covered with rubber running along frame.  As far as I could tell, this was the only leak.  I took to dealer (car has extended warranty) - pointed out leak and told it was easy repair.  Got call later in day saying the tube had been replaced but it started leaking our of steering rack when tech replaced fluid.  Now they are replacing the steering rack.

My question - does this sound fishy to you?  Doesn't matter much to me since all of the repairs are under warranty but sounds like dealership decided to make more money by replacing rack.  My real concern is that this is a major repair and they could screw up car replacing the steering rack.  Or am I better off having the new rack in?  Also, is there any way to verify officially that they put a new rack in and not a rebuilt rack?

Thanks!

Larry

Answer
I doubt there's anything fishy going on.  If there were, they would have likely said that you needed the rack from the outset.  

It's possible that the tech crossthreaded the fitting, damaging the rack, or that the threads came out of the rack when he removed the power steering line-- that happened to me once.

There's not much to mess up when replacing the rack, so no worries there.  But I doubt they've installed a new one.  Most likely they've installed a used one.  If I recall, the price difference is about $500 to $800, and the extended warranty company won't want to put out money that's not necessary.  Most contracts give the warranty company the right to decide whether new, remanufactured, or used parts are installed on the vehicle.

Hyundai part numbers are usually five numbers, then a dash, then five more numbers.  If your rack part number is in this format with an RM after it, it's remanufactured.  If the part numbner isn't in that format, it's probably not a Hyundai part.