As i was buying new tires at the sears auto, they were going to do a free alignement but found the passenger tie rod end was slopping around alot. im suprissed i cant feel it but it was really bad. anyway im replacing it myself but guna take it somewhere to have it re-aligned. so im trying to find some moog joints or possibly go to the dealership and get them. but how hard is this task, and usually when these go out how far behind are the ball joints?

 

http://www.audiworld.com/tech/wheel29.shtml

you screw one off and screw the new one on. pretty much, just pray that the inners arent seized to teh outers. otherwise you need a blowtorch to cut them off or take the inners out too. also if you want i have a set of inner and outer tie rods. OEM from the dealer. just make sure the inner ball joint is the larger or smaller diameter if you do end up replacing the inners. the old ones were 21mm and the new ones are 27mm, and apparently dont interchange. i didnt know that end it ended up costing me.

 

if you are going to be driving it more then right down the street without an alignment first, count the number of rotations to get the old joints off, then put the new ones on with the same number of turns. you can use a measuring tape to get the alignment pretty close.

 

not to thread-jack, but I need to replace all control arms and tie rods very soon. I'm thinking of getting this kit from ECS Tuning (ES#3005)...

Does this kit cover an entire axel or just one wheel end? And would this generally be as easy a DIY as the tie rod job? I will be getting an alignment done at the stealership immediately after too.

 

thats kinda what i figured how it was done, the hanes repair manual i have is kinda vague. i surely hope the inners arent bad too, im guna inspect the inners and the ball joints too. shortly i have to do a oil change (about 50 more miles). ill use my calipers that i have laying around somewhere in my tool box to measure the length of the rod. but thanks guys for clearifying this for me.

 

It's for a whole axle. There's only 4 arms per wheel and there's 8 in that picture.

Also, you can save about half of what ECS'll charge you for an equally quality complete replacement kit like this from eBay. Here's the one I just got. Full 13 piece kit; all 8 arms, tie rod ends, sway bar links, ball joints/bushings, and all the associated hardware, 250 bucks shipped, no tax. If you're lucky, you can pick up this kit or the 12 piece one like Jetspeed333 did for only 195. I wasn't as lucky, but 250 beats what the stealership would charge.

Also, most of that kit is made from FEBI-Bilstein (at least thats what I interpreted from the description) and FCP has a pretty decent rating for their quality. Jetspeed said his was good quality and in my thread a few weeks ago about eBay control arms, tweaked found a good piece of information about the manufacturers from FCP's website.

Go with the ECS kit if you want, but if you're pinching pennies like me, the eBay kit's not a bad way to go IMO.

 

that kit is for the entire front end not one axle and certainly not less. that's everything you need for your entire front end. the only problems you might have is the need for heat. you will want a torch handy to make the job a WHOLE LOT easier. the ball joints aren't too far behind if you need tie rods and there's all sorts of places to get the complete kit and be back to stock or better at a very reasonable price. I would definitely suggest the whole kit if you are getting into it as the ball joints are known to go bad quite regularly. with some jack stands or a lift and a torch you're looking at 2 hours of work.

 

This is really good to hear! I have a fresh torch and a jack set too, already. And my ball joints are terrible so I will definitely need them. I thought they come with the arms on that ECS 'complete' kit...(?) Also, would the rear end use the same kit?

The ebay kit is definitely a bargain but I will have to researc the FCP as you suggested. I will check the threads too.

 

I guess I forgot to mention, that I will be putting in coil overs as well (-StaSiS streetsports-). Does this make the job much more difficult? No. Right?

 

if you're doing the CAs on the whole front end, putting in the COs at the same time will not take much more time and certainly not much more difficult. congrats on the COs, they're my fav