JStuart

Developed an on/off shimmy and the shop say's it's tie rods. Parts labor and alignment come to 710.00.....does this sound reasonable?

Thanks!

Jay

pcar964

I'm interested to hear the responses, as I think my car is suffering from worn tie rods as well.

Stealth 993

I thought mine were going, it ended up being low & a big difference in tire pressure.

black ice

710 sounds like you're being raped. I thought rod end assemblies were like 50 or 60 a piece. that's one expensive alignment.

Dave

Peter B

Tie rods (the link between rack and axle stub, which contain a thick rubber shock absorber) cost about £100 each from the OPC. I renewed mine and labour was one hour per side. Despite taking a lot of care marking the position of the locking nuts, mine still needed a re-alignment.
My car had been extremely twitchy before having the work done. On 18" wheels (and everyone blamed lack of rack damper, incorrect tyre pressures & dick-head driver) the whole car was nervous and prone to rapid un-called for changes of direction, switches from under to over-steer and the worse one, after negotiating tight bends the steering wheel refused to go back to the straight/ horizontal position after the bend. It took something like 10 seconds for the dampers to recover.
The car was transformed and the mechanic had sore knuckles (the rubber boots over the rack ends are absolute bu**ers to refix)
There are also RS t/r ends but I was told not to mix them.
Hope that helps!

gonzilla

I was going to say that it sounded expensive, but Pelican has the tie rods w/ends listed for $210 each side!!! FWIW, I think I paid less than that a few months back. So add to that labor for an hour or two and an alignment and you're not that far off. Before you dive in, you may want to have them check your control arm bushings too, just in case.

JStuart

Here is a break down of the costs quoted.

380.00 parts
135.00 labor
195.00 alignment

After checking with pelican, the parts dont seem that out of line. This is my first P-car and I'm learning as I go.

The car is a 4S with PSS9's and has been lowered ALOT, so I think I'm going to have them raise it a notch or 2.

JStuart

I should also add a little about the symyoms. I first noticed a shimmy while braking on an off ramp...thought I'd warped a rotor. At the next light...no shimmy while braking...not the rotors. As the weeks went on it would come and go, then I started to notice an occasional slight vibration in the wheel ...tap the brakes and the wheel shake/shimmy is there. Other times when I don't feel the vibration and use the brakes there is no shimmy from braking. If I really load the brakes while exeriencing the shimmy it stops. On the freeway the steering is tight but it is sensitive to the wear of the road.

It goes into the shop on Tuesday so we shall see what all needs to be replaced at almost 75k miles.

Have a great weekend!

Jay

Dr. No

If that's a four wheel alignment (and they know what they are doing) it's not bad. Beware though, many shops with good equipment think they know how to align 993s and don't.

Oshin11

I agree with Dr. No, I have changed my tie rods out myself on my 911 but it can be a pain so if you dont have the time, have a shop change them. 993 tie rods are 200 for each side, whereas I remember my 911 1987 tie rods were less than half that. I don't know why the 993 tie rods are so expensive now. Labor seems low, I was quoted 3.5 hours of labor = 350 dollars and thats without the alignment. So I would say have the shop put in your tie rods and then drive it (very slowly!!) to a shop that ONLY DOES ALIGNMENTS aka a specialist. Make sure they know how to align Porsche 993s too. Usually indie Porsche mechanics dont bother with alignment, equipment is too costly and they dont make enough money to offset that cost. Good luck, and I dont think you are getting raped, that is if it really is your tie rods that are messed up. My tie rods went 120K miles but were really beat up by the time I replaced them.

geolab

I have changed mine. 130 Euros each (full part with ball joint)
On a lift, it took me 10 minutes each side. To remove, you undo the ball joint, and you turn the tie rod
off the steering rack. If you try unscrewing the tie-rod from the middle, it will take you 2 hours each.
The new tie-rod will screw in (the middle) like butter. I remember doing it by hand.
After, since it is only the toe-in/toe-out you need to adjust, you can cut costs down on a full alignment.
I did it on an alignment machine, on the same lift.
The longest part was to instal the alignment hardware.

pcar964

Those are the exact symptoms my car is having - if I load the brakes hard, the shimmy goes away. It must be that the tie rods are "forced" to go to one side or the other, and the braking force keeps them pinned down, for lack of a better description. Does anybody know a good way to check tie rods to see if they're worn?

Black993

would love to know the best way to check them as well. I'm about to roll 80k on the car.

Geolab, how bad would it be on jack stands vs. a lift?

geolab

In my personnal opinion, when in doubt on tie rods, change them.
The tie rods could default in two areas, one is the silentblock and one is the ball joint.
I took out my old ones and soldered the cores to cure, with no change.
Later, since the electric welding was not proper, I bought the new ones.
when I changed them, shimmering went away. The culprit was the ball joint...

Removing the tie-rod from the rack side I presume, is the same. Difference is I used
a lever to remove ball joint from wheel hub since I prefer to avoid tapping. If on jacks, you should be needing a tiny hammer maybe

pcar964

Are you usually able to feel the looseness with the car jacked up?