Tie Rod End Replacement Questions

[Engineer]

Well the vibration in my steering wheel kept getting worse so I took it to a reputable repair shop for a road force balance and alignment check and they say the driver side tie rod end is bad. Unfortunate but not surprising running the aftermarket equipment (and it has been used but not abused). A couple questions

*From a quick search/my understanding this is a quick easy job , any reason to not to both of them at the same time? (would hate to have the passenger side go and then need an alignment again which is something I can't do myself.

*Are there options for more robust tie rods ( a quick internet search seems to say no but want to double check)

*If any one has reccomended place to buy replacements let me know, otherwise I will find an online vendor. (Edit: Dealer Price is $76.36 each - always a good baseline, Rockauto.com Moog joint is $18.43 - ACDelco $28.99 and O'Reilly Auto is $60.99 with what looks to be the Moog Joint from the photo)

*I am not a suspension expert but as my comment above eluded to I believe that the changes I have made to the truck could easily , almost without a doubt, be contributing to the tie rod end failing at 26k miles. I am not planning to approach the dealer about this for warranty work (even if they said yes it doesn’t seem like the right thing to do if it was me, not Toyota who caused this) Thoughts? (not about the warrenty but about in all likely hood the "premature" failure was caused by modfications.

 

[Ducmonsta]

At 26k, I would take it to the dealer and let them make the call of whether or not it's under warranty. A lift, wheels and tires, and even some minor off road abuse shouldn't require tie rod end replacement. Unless that tie rod end was smashed off road, I don't see how the joint would fail so early.

 

[Ducmonsta]

And when are you experiencing the vibration? Certain speeds? After hitting a bump?

I apologize if you've explained your concern in another thread and I didn't see it.

 

[Engineer]

only at high speeds, mainly 40 and above. It is only time to run it by the dealer and inquire.

When I get the truck back tonight I will put it on jacks and do some digging myself. It was low on my list of probability that they were bad and living in an apartment its "a pain" to drag my jack and stands down to the garage. To be honest I don't know if its the outer or inner, or both.

 

[nevada]

Well the vibration in my steering wheel kept getting worse so I took it to a reputable repair shop for a road force balance and alignment check and they say the driver side tie rod end is bad. Unfortunate but not surprising running the aftermarket equipment (and it has been used but not abused). A couple questions

*From a quick search/my understanding this is a quick easy job , any reason to not to both of them at the same time? (would hate to have the passenger side go and then need an alignment again which is something I can't do myself.

*Are there options for more robust tie rods ( a quick internet search seems to say no but want to double check)

*If any one has reccomended place to buy replacements let me know, otherwise I will find an online vendor. (Edit: Dealer Price is $76.36 each - always a good baseline, Rockauto.com Moog joint is $18.43 - ACDelco $28.99 and O'Reilly Auto is $60.99 with what looks to be the Moog Joint from the photo)

*I am not a suspension expert but as my comment above eluded to I believe that the changes I have made to the truck could easily , almost without a doubt, be contributing to the tie rod end failing at 26k miles. I am not planning to approach the dealer about this for warranty work (even if they said yes it doesn’t seem like the right thing to do if it was me, not Toyota who caused this) Thoughts? (not about the warrenty but about in all likely hood the "premature" failure was caused by modfications.

26k? that's really low miles for it to be bad. I would ask for them to show you.

it also shouldn't cause any vibrations.

 

[turdpro]

Yes, odd that tie rod is shot from just lift and some offroading in 26K. I suspect there was a mfgr defect. My FJ had 300K and slight lift and only needed 1 set of tie rods the whole time. So I'll echo the take it to the dealer suggestion.

That said if its some issue caused by damage, I've had good results w Moog tie rods in my Toyotas. At 26K I would just replace the whole tie rod assembly (inner+outer) on the affected side. And its an easy job but you will need an alignment unless you're real careful on counting threads!

 

[Jeremy556]

I am skeptical of the diagnosis.

 

[Rein]

My passenger Tie rod end is shot and leaking. Took it to the dealer and they told me due to my lift it voids the warranty. Claiming the angle my suspension is at due to the lift caused the boot to rupture. I put about 50% effort into bickering but the service adviser told me that none of the techs want to lose their job. Something about having to send it back to Toyota as proof.

So I just did it myself, $50 something dollar part.

 

[1engineer]

My passenger Tie rod end is shot and leaking. Took it to the dealer and they told me due to my lift it voids the warranty. Claiming the angle my suspension is at due to the lift caused the boot to rupture. I put about 50% effort into bickering but the service adviser told me that none of the techs want to lose their job. Something about having to send it back to Toyota as proof.

So I just did it myself, $50 something dollar part.

Your tie rod end is leaking?

 

[Rein]

Your tie rod end is leaking?

Steering tie rod end boot had split and "slipped off", spewing some grease onto the dust shield.

I figured ill take it by Toyota since it only had 3k miles on it. No luck due to having a Icon stage 2 with roughly 2-3in lift.

 

[Jeremy556]

Steering tie rod end boot had split and "slipped off", spewing some grease onto the dust shield.

I figured ill take it by Toyota since it only had 3k miles on it. No luck due to having a Icon stage 2 with roughly 2-3in lift.

Did you disconnect the tie rod during lift install, maybe use a pickle fork? Really, a normal lift doesn't affect the TREs at all since the lift only affects static ride height and doesn't change travel.

 

[Rein]

Did you disconnect the tie rod during lift install, maybe use a pickle fork? Really, a normal lift doesn't affect the TREs at all since the lift only affects static ride height and doesn't change travel.

TBH I do not know. Had a tech, who had done my previous Tacoma lift, do the install after hours and I was not present. As someone who checks technicians work all day long, I wouldn't put it past him slightly damaging it without saying anything. I did not see anything wrong during the post alignment(s). Only after putting the vehicle through some obstacles (maxing out the travel) did I see the issue while checking some trail damage.

If that were the case I would expect a different explanation on why they were not warrantying the repairs. They specifically stated my lift caused the issue, and they stated it will probably happen to the other side.

 

[wfo9]

Very easy to change a tire rod end. Also pretty easy to diagnose play in it.

Inner tie rod is a bit more trouble but still pretty simple. Aftermarket parts seem to work fine and are very cheap.