replacing tie rods

[colVR4]

Has anyone attempted to do their own replacement of tie rods and ends?

The local mitsubishi dealership charge £68 per hour labour WTF!! Because warrranty direct only let you claim up to £40 per hour labour I would have to pay the difference and mitsi reckons its a 3 hour job.

I have tried some other local garages but they are reluctant to work on VR4 as they haven't touched one before. So, at the moment I am looking at just buying the parts and doing the job myself. The parts, if I get them from camskill, are peanuts so I just need the know-how. I have printed off the diagram of the parts from the manual but it doesn't show in detail the process of changing them.

This is where the font of knowledge that is clubvr4 comes in. Can anyone help? /help

[colVR4]

hmm... this website offers some help.

http://advanceautoparts.com/english/youcan/html/ccr/ccr20021001tr.html#

How applicable is the guide to our cars? Anyone know?

[sydkhan]

dude if you want to come down to manchester i will do it for you or get my uncle to get it done for £50 for whole thing done.if are gonna do it ur self then i can tell u at most wat u have to do.Its really easy did mine Track Rod end costed only £35 and fitted it self saved plenty..... hehe

[bernmc]

hmm... this website offers some help.

http://advanceautoparts.com/english/youcan/html/ccr/ccr20021001tr.html#

How applicable is the guide to our cars? Anyone know?

Yeah - that's all there is to it. You'll need a ball joint splitter, but that's about the only 'special' tool.
Make sure you get your alignment checked afterwards - the marking threads thing will get you close, but you don't want to kill two tyres trying to save a few quid on tracking.

[colVR4]

"All there is to it"......yeh, right

I had a go at getting the tie rod end off yesterday and gave up after an hour and a half, and that was with a 'proper' tool.

So, I thought, I'll leave the ends for now and just undo the tie rod itself....except that all the nuts had welded themselves to the metal.

First job on Monday, drop it in to the garage. I would drive over the Manchester but I have split the gaiter on the tie rod end so I don't want to drive it too far. I have bought all the parts from Camskill for £137 (two ends, two rods and two gaiters).

[bernmc]

Girlie ;)

[colVR4]

Okay...time for an update.

I decided, after some banter... you know who you are!!.. that I would give it another go. I set to the tie rod ends again and, with some experimentation, I managed to get the tie rods ends to part company with the metal.

I then had to figure out how to undo the inner tie rod from the steering rack. No easy job considering the limited space in which to work. If anybody knows an easy way, don't hesitate to mention it. I ended up using an open-faced plumbers wrench with about 2mm of free movement and a very big hammer.

Without resorting to taking off the lower suspension arm (which looked tempting at the time) I managed to replace the tie rods and tie rod ends on both sides. Just have to pop it to a garage to get the tracking done now. I am feeling very proud of myself as well for managing the job.

Word to the wise though.... do not even attempt this job unless you have the PROPER tools ready to go.

[Physician]

Good stuff ......... saved a few pennies and learned a lot I guess :happy:

[bernmc]

I decided, after some banter... you know who you are!!..

Send me their names, and I'll have them whipped :|!

Well done -glad you got there in the end :2thumbsup

[colVR4]

Learnt much, lost skin but saved about £300+ than if I had had it done at Mitsi dealership.

I am going to get all the worked checked over properly just to make sure I haven't made any schoolboy errors before I start driving it vigourously.

[Wouter]

:thumbsup:

Well done mate!!

I am sorry WRD did not see this thread earlier other wise we would have done it for half the mitsi price!

[colVR4]

Where is your workshop based? I may pop it in to get the work checked over.

EDIT/ Never mind, just checked out the map. A bit too far to just 'pop' over unfortunately.

[orionn2o]

so did it solve your brake vibration problem???

[colVR4]

I have not had any brake vibration since the car had the tie rods done. I asked the garage about this and they said that any play in either the tie rod ends, tie rods or ball joints COULD cause brake vibration. It is worth just getting them checked out to see how much play is there.

They did also say that it could be down to poor quality brake parts too though.

[colVR4]

UPDATE:

So, all tie rods and tie rod ends replaced...


....and the noise is still there. Going to check out the engine and transmission mounts, the upper and lower ball joints and the suspension bushes to see if any of those are worn.

[BraindG]

UPDATE:

So, all tie rods and tie rod ends replaced...


....and the noise is still there. Going to check out the engine and transmission mounts, the upper and lower ball joints and the suspension bushes to see if any of those are worn.
/Grrr

Thats a pain in the arse!..

[colVR4]

You are NOT kidding its a pain. At least I still got all the work done under warranty so only cost me £25 in the end (and some skin of my knuckles).

[bernmc]

mmmm. I've got a bit of a high speed vibration too now - may be those dodgy ball joints I bodge-fixed (http://www.clubvr4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14529) earlier. Just ordered new lower arms from psbuttyboy's german source, so we'll see if that makes any difference...

[Kieran]

Just ordered new lower arms from psbuttyboy's german source, so we'll see if that makes any difference...

Let us know when they turn up Bern - and if they fit okay!:2thumbsup

[psbarham]

Let us know when they turn up Bern - and if they fit okay!:2thumbsup my bumper isn't dragging on the floor so they must fit ok /pan

[dickytim]

I have just taken the whole lot of suspension out to fix the CV's the tie rod ends popped out of the hub carrier with a carful hit in the right place :)