I recently went through the front suspension of my car and replaced my tie rod ends, inner and outer, and my upper and lower ball joints.
What started it all was that my car had a shimmy and shake to it when I would stop. It was pretty annoying. What was even more annoying was that I replaced my brake pads and rotors last summer. That is the classic cause for shimmying while braking and usually it is correct. So I crawled underneath and started tugging and twisting stuff until I made something move. That's what she said.
Anyway I found some play in the tie rod and that started off a bunch of parts ordering and replacing. In the end doing the job my self on my Acura Integra cost me about $450 in parts.
I was able to rent an inner tie rod tool and a ball joint press. Orielly's is my go to for tool rental. If you are unfamiliar with the system, basically you pay full price for the tool and then return it for a full refund. That's some place where a credit card comes in handy. But it temporarily cost me about $250. Both tools gave me the ability to do the entire job in my garage.
The inner tie rod tool was the only way I was able to get the inner tie rods off the car. Access is too confined for a wrench and when the car is on jack stands, close to the ground it's hard to see any other way.
Believe it or not the thing that gave me the most trouble were the boots that go over the inner tie rod. they took me at least a half an hour a piece. The space is very confined for two hands and you really have to stretch it to get it on there.
Well I still have some shimmy, and it's probably my brakes haha! But here is a short video explaining how I diagnosed the bad tie rod. Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment