Just sharing my day.

I tore into the van to replace what I assumed to be a faulty brake caliper. I had noticed that my steering has been a bit.....unstable lately, so I gave the wheel jiggle while I had it up. Oh. man! Danger Danger, thrashed outer tie rod end! This thing was blown out bad. The kicker? I had a shop replace that part a year ago.

Not wanting to get into a fight w/ the shop over the part, I just said forget it and picked up a driveworks tie rod end from advance and tossed it on. I still need to do an alignment, but I got it within about 90% so good enough for now. The van's a bit of a beater anyway and on its way out soon, just limping it by until we finish buying a house and moving.

/share

 

The tie rod ends on that generation were woefully inadequate in my opinion (not sure if it was fixed later or not). It was easy to wear them out just from cornering too hard. Which, considering the surprisingly amazing turn-in on those, was easy to do without even realizing it.

 

Even the replacement part? This was a part that wore out after being replaced a year ago.

I think the REAL issue is that they put a AutoBone cheap part on it. Maybe what you're saying is a contributing issue too? I dunno, was just a bit grumpy that the repair didn't last a year, but it wasn't hard to do.

 

I mean the design specs of the original part. It's thin and tiny. Add in crap chinese steel from an "autobone" replacement part, and you get them breaking in a year.

 

Well at least I'm on schedule then

The other one I replaced with a Moog, and so far it seems to be holding up. I haven't actually checked it though so who knows...

Thx for the extra info

 

Your early failure could absolutely could have been due to a part design/manufacturing defect. In my experience, most "reputable" shop will not use "bargain" parts because they don't want the call backs.

For suspension components, I tend to use Moog (Federal-Mogul) and TRW. They manufacture across the world. Name brand parts manufactured overseas are not "cheap crap" parts. Inexpensive parts are just that - if the manufacturer did his homework and controls production correctly, you have a good part. It he didn't, it won't last.

I think it is far more likely that you have another suspension component (ball joint, control arm bushing, strut) that contributed to the early failure. Any of these could have sent the suspension into resonance, working the pi$$ (technical term) out of the tie rod end.

Have another look at the suspension and make sure that the tie rod end wasn't just the end result of something else that is on it's way out.

 

So far I haven't found any other suspension issues. I'll check a few more things while I'm doing my brake hose this weekend, but it really wouldn't surprise me if the autozone part was just not very good. The shop was not overly "reputable" as I watched them run to/fro the AutoZone down the road, bring in duralast parts, and charge a premium for them. But hey, "they were cheap enough" so that's what I get

 

If you take the van in for an alignment they should check to make sure that the components are capable of "holding" the alignment. But then. the previous shop that replaced the original tie rod end should have done the same.

If you think the toe is 90% I would take it in for alignment. The caravans track pretty well in a straight line. Throw a Michigan crowned county road and some Ice at it and you'll be wishing for the extra 10%. ...unless you like getting on top of the wheel with a 4000 lb mini-van.