athlon omega

iTrader: (4)

I was going to get an alignment after replacing the 2 front shocks. Firestone said that the inner and outer tie rod on the passneger side had play in it and needed ot be replaced. I got the parts and took it to a freind of my dad who is a mechanic. He noted that the boots on each side of the rack were torn and it was leaking a bit. He advised that sooner or later I would have to replace the rack rendering the inner tie rod I but useless in the long run since a new rack comes with ner inner tie rods. He stated that sand and dirt get into the rack and erode the seals when the boots are tron. I've noticed the boots to be torn for some while now, but since it had no effecton driving mechanics or made no noise, I didn't worry about it. Has anyone had theirs replaced? Autozone has one for $228 after $165 core charge is given back. I'm thinking it's about time since I have around 145,000 miles on the max and it' s about 10 yrs old.