Firestone say need to replace my rackandpinion

Firestone replaced an outer tie rod on my truck (asked them to show me the play) a couple years back. Within a year the same one they replaced went bad (they warrantied it but I paid labor). 6 months later they said my whole rack was bad and wanted like $1000 to replace it. Took it to the guy I use and he said it had no play side to side, but a bit up and down. Wasn't terrible but with 180k I replaced it