Firestone quoted me $625 to replace my tie rods! WTH??

A trip to Auto Zone, $70 and a few hours later, I've got new tie rods on my son's new-to-him '97 Avenger.

I will say these were my first tie rods and the inner ones were a !#$!% to get to.

I'm new to the forum, so hello everyone!

- Paul

 

Welcome ...

I'd recomend a Front end alignment as well after the replacement You can have excessive toe in /pulling

 

Completely agree. Even though I took careful note of how many rotations the outer tie rod took to get off, I guess the replacement parts had some discrepancy. I noticed toe in on both sides.

Since we have four new tires put on, Firestone said a front end alignment was free. When I passed on their tie rod service, he said just bring it back after those were replaced and they would still do the alignment. Hopefully that's still the case.

 

Yes no matter how careful you are they always seem to be a bit off.
I made measurements and marked and was still off
Cheap insurance to get them aligned

 

You can't really go by the number of threads, even if the new tie rod ends are the exact same brand as the originals. There's no reason for the manufacturer to always make the parts with the same number of threads in exactly the same position, since the part is capable of so much adjustment.

Best thing to do is get the most accurate measurement you can with a digital caliper from the end of the adjusting sleeve to the stud, and adjust the new rod ends to match. Even then you should still get an alignment though.

 

Well, we did get the alignment done. At first the lady tried to charge us for it, but since the other rep had stated they would do it for free, she honored it.