I went to get a new set of tires today, as the old Nitto Extemes are literally falling apart (cracks all over sidewalls). The guy went to check on my alignment and noticed that there is considerable play on both front wheels when pushing and pulling on each wheel on the sides. He told me the inner tie rods are bad. I would like to ask those who have replaced theirs if this is a true symptom of bad tie rods.

Also, the toe is off spec, camber is good. I do have traction bars on mine and perhaps, it may need to be adjusted so that it doesn't pull on the LCA's too much. Anyone with traction bars have this issue?

 

raise the car and grab the wheel and move it back and forth and watch for the tie rod moving... if it has play usually its bad especially if its a 95 and u never replaced it...

 

Up/down play is usually wheel bearing or balljoints, left/right is tie rods. There should be virtually no movement transmitted through the tie rods, if you shake it and get movement they're bad.

 

Lift the car. Remove the front wheels. Detach the outer tie rods from the steering knuckles. Now grab the tie rod assembly and feel for any looseness where it attaches to the steering rack (this joint is the inner tie rod). If it rotates freely or has any popping or play when you pull/push on it, it's a bad inner tie rod. (note, I'm not talking about the steering rack sliding, I'm talking about the socket joint).

I would not drive a car with bad toe angle regardless of the suspension setup. Toe directly affects tire wear.

Dave

 

That confirms it...bad inner tie rods, thanks guys!

Now, do you all think it matters to get them from Nissan or would aftermarket ones do? How hard do you all think it is to replace those rods. I haven't searched the forum yet. I have replaced the boots on them though and that was a bit of a pain because of the lack of room to work down there.


Dave,

Just Tires won't even correct the toe alignment because of the bad tie rods. At least they were truthful with me about it rather than just charging me money for the alignment only for it to go off spec again and totally waste a new set of tires quickly.

 

you could change them yourself ans save $$$
look for write up on my cardomain page ( i think its on page 14 or 15)

 

here you go:
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/348507/13

 

The trick is having the special wrench to change the rods.

A shop should be able to change the tie rods for a reasonable price - I'd say 1 hour plus an alignment. It's true - if the tie rods are loose you can't align the car.

Dunno about OEM inner tie rods. If they're super expensive, I'd go aftermarket, but I would NOT get the cheapest ones out there.

Edit: the Nissan inners are $42 and the outers are $29 from www.worldpartsexpress.com. Those are very reasonable prices, in fact I'd consider changing them all.

Dave

 

damn i just ordered moog inners for 29 a piece, i'd have spent more for oem

 

Thanks for all the help guys. I found a shop that will do this for a very reasonable price and I'm also going to let them replace the water pump. I found a set of inner tie rods at Autozone for $27 ea.

One more question, is toe alignment solely adjusted by the outter tie rods? The reason I asked is because before I installed the traction bars on my car (5 months ago), the alignment was done. I am thinking that perhaps these bars are causing the front wheels to toe in because it limits the up/forward - down/backward motion of the LCAs, the alignment computer showed the current toe settings.