Ynot

Got an oil change yesterday at my dealer and during the inspection, they found both my right and left inner tie-rod are worn. My 2006 C4S only has 23K miles on it. Must be a bad batch of tie rods in 2006. How could it go bad with only 23K miles? I got quoted for $1,362 with an alignment, what is a reasonable cost for this replacement?

TIA

Tom@TPC Racing

Inner tie-rods are a b*tch to change. Have to drop the subframe. An alignment is required. And might as well change the outters while you're in there. They usually wear out when making tight radius turns like in a very small underground parking garage with columns everywhere. Turning the steering wheel all the way to the stop puts pressure on the inner joints. Banging the wheel against the stop really tears them up since the power assisted steering puts A LOT of force on the joints. The inners very rarely wear out on race cars because they are typically not subjected to tight radius turns, and when they are typically they aren't driven the cars are pushed by team members. On my street cars I try to avoid turning the streering wheel all the way and when I really need the full turning radius I turn the wheel very gentle to the stop.

kisik

I have seen quite a few cases where there is excessive movements in steering due to tie rods. Porsche used TRW for tie rod as supplier. My indy shop has a few all the time.
Cost: parts are cheap. You can get all inner and outer left and right (4ps) for about $200 based TRW part numbers.
Labour: about 1-1.5h per axial max. It is $125 shop rate in Boston = $375 + alignment ($250). So total should be around $800

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05' 997.1 C2S

Ynot

Thanks for the explanation and suggestions, I do make sharp turns leaving the neighborhood, I'll try not to turn it all the way after I changed to new ones. Sometimes when I turn all the way, it makes a "Pop" sound, wonder if that is related to a worn tie rod? I also noticed a slight vibration on the steering wheel when driving on the highway. BTW, still loving the TPC turbo on my C4S, thanks for all your help as always.

Thanks for the quote, I did browse Pelican parts and the parts itself isn't too expensive.

Tom@TPC Racing

NP. Having play on tie rods, ball joints, and upper mounts will make pop or knocking sound especially over bumps. Could be the previous owners banging the steering wheel against the stops...

Ynot

Have it scheduled Monday morning to replace inner and outer tie rod, $795 with an alignment and 4 hours of labor. Can't believe alignment is only $59.95. I'm getting it done at Ken Caryl imports for those who are local.

Lance-AR

I would double check the quality of that alignment. My indy spends 2 solid hours aligning mine.

Tom@TPC Racing

I apologize in advance for rambling on before getting to the point. Your statement give me a flashback.

I have been working in the automotive industry for 19 year and a few month. Very early in my career I've worked at a chained dealer for one month. This particular chain sent out coupons for $29.99 oil changes and $39.99 alignments. This was back in 1995. The management allows the mechanic 30 minutes to do an oil change and 45 minutes to do an alignment. They dock our pay our pay if it takes longer time. The clock starts when the mechanic picks up the job ticket, it takes about 15 minutes(on a good day) to find the car in the giant parking lot and navigate around bunch of illegally parked cars to get to the service bay, and have the car set up on the lift. That leaves 15 minutes to get the oil & filter from the parts dept., do the work, and find a parking spot on the crazy busy lot. In the case of the alignment it takes a minimum of 15 minutes to set up the alignment equipment to the wheels. There's no time for finesse here. With the remaining time we do what is known in the industry as "set the toe and let it go". The truth is for about 90% of the cars on the road this is good enough. Many "regular" cars don't even have camber adjustment anyway so as long as the steering wheel is some what straight going down the road it is fine for 90% of the street drivers. On regular street cars with little to no negative camber the toe from side to side doesn't even have to match closely. As long as the toe is with in a certain range the steering wheel will be some what straight. On our Porsche 997's, it does take a couple hours to set camber, toe, eccentrics. And when camber to changed toe will change, and then when toe is corrected then camber changes again. When front setting are change it could change the rear too. With ride height and corner balance can turn into a full day's work. So you might be getting a "set the toe and let it go". Which is perfectly fine if you are not tracking the car and you just want the steering wheel to be some what straight.

GermanCarSpecialists

you are forgetting the "marking eccentrics" for lifetime alignment.

utkinpol

I got mine swapped last year. Only right one had play in it, as i track my car i swapped both. You do not want this joint to come apart mid turn. 600-700 green is about right for the job.
Mechanic who worked on my car says he sees it a lot.

When you get car back check yourself every bolt to be torqued properly and make sure shop uses loctite on all joints.

slicky rick

My shop does alignment in about 1 hr. And seeing the computer readings he gets it all right. I even tell them to get it exactly to the center ot the range, heheheh, special treatment. Hunter hawkeye is very good alignment machine. Our cars do not have caster adjustments so its a lot easier to hit the marks. Old mercs have eccentrics for both camber and caster for the fronts....its a test of balancing skills hahaha.

Ynot

About $800 OTD with an alignment, thanks for all the tips, this Indy specialized in German cars and only service (Audi, BMW, MB, and Porsches). I like their honesty when they pulled it in and noticed only 23K miles. They said, "any reason for replacing your tie rods?" I told him, my dealer said it was worn and they said, they'll double check. They checked and said, it was indeed worn, they also recommend doing the outer as well.