Well, My inner tie rod completely failed today

[1985taylor1925]

So I was pulling out of the gas station this afternoon, and got about 300 feet down the road, and up to around 30 mph, when I suddenly felt a massive wobble from the front end. It felt like a wheel was about to come off. I immediately hit the brakes and pulled off the side of the road. Luckily there were no cars behind me and I was on a county highway with plenty of room on the side of the road. So I got out and inspected, and quickly found that I could move my passenger tire by hand! It was completely disconnected from the steering rack. After removing the boot, the issue was obvious. The inner tie rod had completely snapped at the base of the ball and socket joint. My dad came and picked my up, we went to NAPA and got a cheap (temporary) inner rod, fixed it in 30 minutes, and I drove it home. Luckily the tire didnt turn far enough to buckle the front end.

I installed my Safari LTD steering rack at 220K, which was only 25k ago. There are several threads about the Safari rack, and if I remember correctly they use the AAE rack, which they then rebuild with brass bushings. The inner tie rod however is a different story. I dont know who makes it, but its definately not a Toyota oem part. There are no markings on the part. There are so many threads on the forum about using OEM parts, which I do. But you never expect a part to fail like this with only 25K miles! So looks like Ill be ordering inner tie rods this weekend, and might as well do the lower ball joints and tire rod ends while Im at it.

 

[JayRolla]

Damn man. My aae inners loosened up but didn't fail. I have noticed non oem do not droop like the oems. Do you wheel quite a bit?

 

[1985taylor1925]

Damn man. My aae inners loosened up but didn't fail. I have noticed non oem do not droop like the oems. Do you wheel quite a bit?

I did quite a bit this past summer, and I did some pretty rough trails here in the wy Rockies. I did push the limits of my suspension, but I took it really slow on the rocks. But yeah my thinking is that the trails caused the stress that led to the failure. It's just weird cause that's not a super high stress area. I would expect the ball and socket to wear out, but never expect the shaft would just snap off like that. And the joint is still tight

 

[T4R2014]

I thought that company was full of shit the moment I read their vague claims about these bushings that no one knows the location of.

 

[JayRolla]

I did quite a bit this past summer, and I did some pretty rough trails here in the wy Rockies. I did push the limits of my suspension, but I took it really slow on the rocks. But yeah my thinking is that the trails caused the stress that led to the failure. It's just weird cause that's not a super high stress area. I would expect the ball and socket to wear out, but never expect the shaft would just snap off like that. And the joint is still tight

Cheap bad casting. I believe cheapest oem are available through amayaya.com.

 

[1985taylor1925]

I thought that company was full of shit the moment I read their vague claims about these bushings that no one knows the location of.

Well the steering rack is fine. No issues there. I had called safari years ago before I bought the rack and they said they replaced the polymer bushings with brass. But whatever inner rods they used are apparently garbage, as indicated in the photos above. How does a piece of steel that thick just snap

 

[JayRolla]

I thought that company was full of shit the moment I read their vague claims about these bushings that no one knows the location of.

I completely agree. They gave me run around on all my questions.

 

[T4R2014]

Well the steering rack is fine. No issues there. I had called safari years ago before I bought the rack and they said they replaced the polymer bushings with brass. But whatever inner rods they used are apparently garbage, as indicated in the photos above. How does a piece of steel that thick just snap

Frankly I think they just made a hefty profit by drop-shipping AAE steering racks and claiming they were different since no one really bothers opening up a steering rack to see the difference. Clever but they went down right after someone compared an AAE to a Safari.


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[1985taylor1925]

Frankly I think they just made a hefty profit by drop-shipping AAE steering racks and claiming they were different since no one really bothers opening up a steering rack to see the difference. Clever but they went down right after someone compared an AAE to a Safari.


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Maybe, I don't know. I haven't had any issues with it yet. If the rack goes bad I'll replace it

 

[T4R2014]

Maybe, I don't know. I haven't had any issues with it yet. If the rack goes bad I'll replace it

Most likely. You don't boast the quality of your one-of-a-kind steering rack, but let them go out the door with cheap China tie rods.

 

[Chuckles89]

Looks like I'll be buying some new OEMs for my new AAE rack sitting in my basement...

 

[T4R2014]

Looks like I'll be buying some new OEMs for my new AAE rack sitting in my basement...

At least you didn't get screwed at Safari pricing.

 

[Chuckles89]

At least you didn't get screwed at Safari pricing.

$230 shipped

 

[T4R2014]

$230 shipped

So you've got a genuine Safari rack AND money left over for genuine Toyota tie rods? Smart shopper.

 

[Rock_Rat]

Starting to see too many ITRE and OTRE failures popping up on here. Thank God you weren't on a trail in the middle of no-where. I just posted this the other day for someone. Same place I got my I/OTRE's. Took a while and the shipping from Dubai was still way cheaper then any on-line US parts warehouse. Not a huge savings on the OTRE's

 

[Unner]

Glad nothing went seriously wrong, it's crazy the difference in OEM quality vs. aftermarket suspension parts... Any idea if you can still get the steering rack from Toyota and what it runs? That will probably be the route I go if I ever need to replace, if it is feasible.

 

[StreetCreeper]

Starting to see too many ITRE and OTRE failures popping up on here. Thank God you weren't on a trail in the middle of no-where. I just posted this the other day for someone. Same place I got my I/OTRE's. Took a while and the shipping from Dubai was still way cheaper then any on-line US parts warehouse. Not a huge savings on the OTRE's

I would have thrown in one of those $10 tie rods just to satisfy my curiosity of what a $10 tie rod actually looks like. I suspect it would look identical to any parts store junk.

 

[nobb]

I'm curious about the theory of these ITREs failing due to excessive "droop." Is your truck lifted and perhaps maybe the front sway bars are disconnected (which allows for excess travel)?

Weird though, based on the OP, it looks like it was just normal driving down a road such that the joint was not under any extreme angles. There must have been gradual metal fatigue failure that worked its way through the joint over time.

 

[amalik]

Starting to see too many ITRE and OTRE failures popping up on here. Thank God you weren't on a trail in the middle of no-where. I just posted this the other day for someone. Same place I got my I/OTRE's. Took a while and the shipping from Dubai was still way cheaper then any on-line US parts warehouse. Not a huge savings on the OTRE's

Did you receive them yet? Kind of weird to shop for OEM Yota parts from Dubai.

How's the packaging etc?

 

[99problems]

Any idea if you can still get the steering rack from Toyota and what it runs?

I just replaced mine this week. Paid $523.32 from OEM Part Source.