Technical > Automotive > Inner/Outer tie rods

Inner/Outer tie rods

Are you keeping your truck for a while?
Do you carry payloads with the truck?

reply to cjski


In my experience with automotive parts, in nearly all cases with some exceptions, you get what you pay for. The higher quality parts generally have longer service lives, are easier to install, and have subtle differences that make the extra cost worth it.

reply to cjski
Never expect an "economy" part to last longer than its warranty, and never be surprised when it (often) doesn't. Get the premium part unless you enjoy the effort of disassembling and reassembling your front end.

reply to cjski
How many miles on the truck and how long do you expect to keep it ? I would expect the cheaper parts to match the OEM parts and the expensive parts to last longer. Do you plan on doubling the millage before you discard/sell the truck? If you don't plan on doubling the millage, go with the cheaper parts.

reply to cjski
We have about 98K on the truck. We tow a toyhauler to the beach a few times a year...but mostly it's just driven back and forth to work (8 mi R/T).

reply to cjski
+1 to spend the extra money for better parts. I hate wasting time putting el cheapo parts on stuff I want to keep.

Yea, go for the good ones. Tie rod failure is a catastrophic event.

To be fair, even an economy tie rod will not simply separate from the joint without giving some warning.

You're right. The entire tie-rod end could fail catastrophically at speed, separate from the joint completely at random, shear the nut and cotter pin, and kill you, but that's not anywhere near the typical failure mode of a tie rod end, or we'd have millions of deaths a year.

reply to dbsanfte

Re: Inner/Outer tie rods

reply to cjski
FYI
I lost a high school classmate caused by a front suspension failure at speed; the car rolled over him after ejecting him from the car.
After that experience I always tried to be very cautious when it comes to suspension hardware quality.

reply to cjski
If a part is that important then you might want to go with the OEM part.

I am seriously considering stopping buying from parts stores. I replaced the front hubs on my wife's car. After 120k miles they both had 1/8" of slack in them.

Well, after 10,000 miles the left one failed. When I took it off the car I noticed it had Made in China.

I paid extra for SKF brand because of their name as a great European and worldwide bearing manufacturer. I worked in the printing industry for 20 years and we used a lot of SKF bearings and never replaced any of them.

This is the third time I have had "parts store" parts fail after a short time.

reply to PrntRhd
You can use economy tie rods if your goal is to keep the vehicle in service for a few months to a year, there will be no harm. Should you wish to keep it longer, given the cost of an alignment, I'd recommend a premium part, but an economy tie rod isn't (statistically) going to kill you. Total separation is vanishingly rare and usually happens to owners who ignore the symptoms far longer than common sense would dictate.

reply to cjski
On the rock auto website, thet're are 2 different outers, 1 for 'rack' steer or 'gear' steer...which one is mine?

Do you have rack and pinion, or a steering box?

reply to cjski

May as well take back the tie rod ends, you need a new rack assembly, since the seals are shot. The steering pump may also be on the way out looking at the color of that fluid. If it passes a pressure test after being flushed out it may do OK, but it needs to be flushed clean no matter what.

The plastic part is either a guide bushing that has broken and slid out of the rack, or it is just an assembly sleeve. Can't tell by the picture, but in any case the rack has to be replaced.