How can you tell if your tierod ends are going bad?

Question

i feel a little shake in the steering wheel when driving and turning. it doesn't affect my steering but noticable. it is a 2002 silverado with 125000 miles. i had the lower steering shaft replaced about 3 years ago.

Answer 1

When a tie rode end is going bad, your tire on the side with the bad tie rod will wear on the inside or the outside.  But from what you explain, it could be a tire out of balance, a wheel alignment or a tie-rod end.  Take it to a reputable shop that has a good wheel alignment machine and let them tell you what if anything it needs. If it needs a tie rod or 2, they won't do a wheel alignment until the parts are replaced

Answer 2

Take and jack the front end up , then go over to one of the tire's and grab it on each side of the tire , now wiggle it side to side to see if there is any play in the bearing, now that you have it up grab the tire's from the top and bottom then  rock them to see if your wheel bearings are good, if the tire rock alot you might need to tighten the bearing or replace the bearing.

Answer 3

Jack the truck up and shake the wheel, or tie rod.

Answer 4

When checking tie-rod ends, it's important to jack under the lower control arm. If you jack under the frame, the suspension drops, and the tie-rods are abnormally tensioned. This can make it look like they are in better shape than they really are.

Also, grabbing the tire at 3 and 6 o'clock is a good test, but it's not a complete test. If you're not looking at the tie-rod while you do this, any looseness you feel could be any of several parts, especially on non-rack and pinion vehicles.

You need to watch the 2 parts of the tie-rod end in relation to each other. The first part is what is most visible, but the other part is the stud which goes into the steering knuckle or center link in the case of the inner tie-rod.

http://www.made-in-china.com/image/2f0j0...

While moving the tire back and forth, you need to look for any movement between the main part you can see, and the stud, and/or the part it is installed into. You also should grab the main part and try to move it back and forth on a line with the stud.

This applies to all 4 tie-rods on a non-rack and pinion steering linkage (Ackerman) setup, as well as the outters on a rack and pinion setup.

Tomorrows lesson; how to fabricate the special tool you'll need to unload and properly check the ball-joints on a '67-'73 Mustang or Cougar.  ;-)

Answer 5

From my own personal experience 20+ years ago, I had a Datsun 310 and the way I found out the tierod ends were going bad was a clunking sound they made when turning. I pulled into the driveway one day and honestly, the tire fell off. The only thing holding it on was the lugnuts. Talk about lucky not to have been on the road driving when it happened. It sure taught me that whenever I hear a clunking noise, get it checked out quickly.

Answer 6

the persons above are right!