How To Diagnose A Bad Inner Tie Rod

all right in this video we're going to diagnose a bad inner thyroid and this is going to be an easy diagnosis where you could do it at home usually with a bad inner tie rod you won't hear any knocking or thumping so the car i'm driving does have a bad inner tie rod and i'll show you how we can confirm it but the first clue is when driving along the road or hitting any bumps or any potholes your steering wheel will shake more than usual so that's the first clue all right so the first step is we're going gonna go ahead and jack up one side of the car okay so for this next part you're gonna need someone to help you out so have someone grab the wheel at nine and three o'clock and then have him shake it just a bit so we could see any looseness in any joints so if any of your suspension components are loose you're going to feel the wheel shake a bit and that's not normal you need it to be uh solid with no movement so the movement that you're gonna feel is like a small side to side like a kind of like a thumping noise or a small uh knock and now as he's shaking we're going to focus on the ball joint here and as you can see the the boot isn't moving so we know that there's no loose joint there now we're going to go ahead and focus on the tie rod the outer tie rod and as we could see the boot isn't moving that's kind of the clue it gives if there's any loose joints the boot is going to start to move so we don't see anything here now we're going to go ahead and see the inner tie rod which is the last joint that's left so it's kind of hard to see because the joint is covered with the rubber boot the sleeve on the rack and pinion so to confirm it you want to grab the inner tie rod and put some weight on it which is trying to pull it down to mimic like a good uh joint and with that the person shaking the the person helping you shake the wheel should not see or not feel the movement anymore and that's how you know you've isolated the bad the bad joint okay now since the inner tie rods are attached to the rack and pinion the rack and pinion could also be loose so to confirm that we're gonna go to the other side the right side inner tie rod and do the same thing so we're going to put some weight on it pull it down and have the person helping you shake the wheel again and if you do feel movement from the other side into the right side inner tie rod that means the rack and pinion and there's probably something loose inside and that's the difference that's how you would diagnose a bad inner tie rod or the whole rack and pinion but in this case i didn't feel any movement going across so we're just going to change the inner tie rod but in this case i'm going to change both since i'm uh i'm going to do it all in one shot okay now here's the same joint the inner tie rod without the boot so you could see the joint moving as i shake the wheel and then keep your eyes out on the top of the joint here you'll see the movement it's moving in and out and that's enough to cause like a shake in the steering wheel or a shaking your suspension now here's a closer look with the rubber sleeve removed and the outer tie rod usually this joint is supposed to be tight but as you can see it's all loose you can just flick it with uh with one finger and it's not supposed to be loose like that it should be uh it should be nice and tight and keep in mind that this movement is amplified because of the weight of the vehicle and the torque of the wheels when you uh when you accelerate and now we're closer look at the old one the old bad one as you can see there's no resistance at all i could just turn the joint freely with one hand and that's how you know it this is a bad one and you don't want that in your car and now we're gonna compare it to a new good one like this and as you can see the joint is harder to move it shouldn't really move at all it's only going to move when it's on the car and it the car is generating enough torque with the wheels when you turn the your steering wheel back and forth but just from holding it in my hands i couldn't really move the joint so you know that this one is uh is good now after the repair is done the new inner tie rod is in we're going to confirm the repair by doing the same thing we're going to shake the wheel at nine and three o'clock from side to side and we shouldn't feel any movement or any thumping uh the slight movement that you feel is just from the steering wheel moving slightly from side to side but it should lock at some point and that's the oh that's the only movement you should feel it shouldn't feel like a thumping or a knocking noise at all and that's how you know you fixed it and that's it that's how you diagnose a bad inner tie rod i'll put a link in the description below for the the video i'm going to put out a video on how to use um the inner tie rod tool or if you want to see the video on the procedure to changing out your uh inner and outer tie rods i'll link in the description too and i'll see you guys next time peace so if you have any comments or questions leave them in the comments below make sure to like and subscribe for more videos like these and i'll see you guys next time

Channel: OneTrickTech

Views: 561,296

Keywords: how to diagnose a bad inner tie rod, how to tell a bad inner tie rod, how to fix steering wheel squeak noise, how to fix tire wear uneven, how to fix suspension noise, bad inner tie rod diagnosis

Id: xKEAQWUxUVo

Length: 6min 10sec (370 seconds)

Published: Mon May 10 2021