Tie Rods - Signs Your Due to Change Them

Got a similar thread on wheel bearings. As you’re driving what are the indicators you’re in need of replacing tie rods? (either inner or outer) steering inputs, noises etc. Thanks in advance.

 

Dude for real you so paranoid you gonna give your self a heart attack.

You are probably more likely to get into an accident, have a dead battery hell run out of gas before any of these things happen.

 

Haha. You can tell I’ve got OCD. Getting a lot of enjoyment putting the rig to use. Just want to do my due diligence maintenance-wise.

 

Replace them at every oil change if that's the case.

 

This along with brake fluid, transmission flush, gear oil, wiper blade.

I understand wanting to handle regular maintenance but the items you are asking about dont fall anywhere near that category.

 

You can check for excessive play with the suspension unloaded to initially check for excessive, movement/wear. When you get a worn one, You will know it. I am guessing you have checked the "Tube" already before posting on here. Not an item that typically fails within the first few years.

 

Ok, I get it. Change them with every car wash etc. If you’ve kept things stock and/or are strictly pavement this isn’t a thing. You’re good for life, likely. However, with additional stress on steering components and bearings from bigger wheels and offsets as well as hard use on trails wheel bearings and steering components do wear faster and become a maintenance issue.

 

Just to put it into perspective, I have a 2013 with 186k miles. Couple months ago I took it to a shop to have the front end checked out before going on a weekend off-road trip. The tech took me in the bay and showed me how all the tie rods, lower ball joints, upper ball joints were tight. I bought it with 79k, and as far as I know they're all the originals.

Wheel bearings, CV, axles, and drive shaft u-joints are original as well.

 

Yep. Checked the Tube and am aware of the 3 & 12 and 12 & 6 unloaded checks you can do with wheels up. Did them recently when I rotated tires. Thing is, the play you might feel at the wheel can be subjective. Buddy of mine was like hey I feel a little play and I’m like nope don’t feel a thing. That said I’d like to know if there were clear indicators or warnings in handling before things give out as losing a tie rod accompanies loss of steering. Pretty catastrophic stuff.

 

Good to hear. I’m still new to this 4Runner platform and getting a feel for how stout components really are. Hopefully when my 2020 is a decade in from use with many trips under the belt I’ll have a better gauge of how things wear.

 

To add to this, I've driven about 1.5 million miles on Toyotas, both new and used, maybe 12 vehicles in all since 1982. I have yet to experience a failure of tie rods, CV joints, or wheel bearings on any of them.

 

Let me actually be helpful, although Dillusion and catbrown had me laughing.

I may be the only dude here who’s documented 5th gen factory tie rod failure.
It was due first to a lot of aftermarket mods and extra stress - compounded with off-road shop alignments and my personal lack of knowledge of tie rod design/maintenance. Second, the jam nuts weren’t torqued right and slowly were backing off, I didn’t notice, I even have photo evidence of both sides jam nuts progressively loosening right under my nose. I blame 4R. com for no one catching it in my posts of my suspension
Over time the threads stripped out on both inner and outer the rods. Passenger side worse than driver, both had seriously play until one day during just the right turn at just the right angle the rods separated from each other

*you’ll hear clunking, grinding of the rod play, and there’s road wander

 

@Scarif_1
Your toyota tie rods are great quality they are good for years and years and years.

Just don’t let my mistake or something like that happen to you.
-watch for any fluid leaking out the inner tie rod bellow
-you or your shop check on the “balljoint tightness”
-watch your jam nuts where the outer rod
twists onto the inner:



^there should be no gap

 

Those had backed off that much unnoticed?

 

Damn. So how fast were you going and that must’ve been a moment where life flashed by. I’d put that on the last alignment guy right? Since that’s the toe adjustment you didn’t notice any strange handling leading up to failure?

 

Damn is right lol

So it was my wife driving, which made things worse cuz she already didn’t like mods. Thank goodness she had just left our house and was travelling somewhat slow over a speed bump while fully locked left.
The truck barely made it back to the house without damaging more parts, it was f*cked. However, I don’t think the separation was possible at a high speed anyways.

Lift and mods done from 2021-2023, failure March 2023. I blamed my shop, they said I should have periodically checked my tie rods, I said wtf dude. We compromised on free labour for the aftermarket replacement I bought (factory price on inner rods in canada is insane)

 

That’s correct.
Don’t know what you don’t know, right.
Novice 4wd owners don’t check their tie rod jam nuts.
*I believe I hadn’t been back to the shop while the loosening happened. Only went to Valvoline oil change during that period and they din notice lol

 

True. Now it's obvious. One would like to think that seeing those photos it would jump right out. I think I'll go check those jam nuts!

 

Dude do it! Goodluck
You should see me checking everyday

 

Positive castor angle probably contributed to the tie rod threads lasting as long as they did, I also see lots of pitting/corrosion which means once the jam nut(s) backed off there was sufficient thread engagement play to allow moisture to infiltrate, further speeding up the failure....glad the Mrs was okay!



From the day mine was built to almost 18 years later, never taken apart...I think the jam nuts were seized in place! lol

 

Wow, that's wild. I'm glad no one was hurt and it was a slow speed event. Thanks for posting that, now I know to keep an eye on that. Though. Since my tie rods are original, I'm pretty sure those nuts are seized in place LOL. Once I get them replaced though, I'll keep an eye on the new ones.

 

I have 230k on mine. Passenger inner tie rod has a little wear. Not wearing tires. Drives itself at 80 mph. I have replacements ready, but I usually don't start replacing parts until 300k. I haven't worn anything out yet. Less is more with a 4runner. The less you touch it and just buy gas, better you will be. You can worry a hole thu the aluminum block faster. There's a reason I change oil 10k, transmission and coolant 60-75k and plugs, brake fluid, steering fluid, transfer case, diffs every 100k. I did install a transmission cooler and power steering cooler and magnetic filter. Already factory oil cooler. I know the less I touch mine, the better I will be. If doesn't cost a fortune to maintain a 4runner that way. You won't get any more miles from new than I will used. It's about doing the right thing only when needed.

 

If anything is about to fall off, you will definitely know it before it happens. By the time it makes a lot of noise, it's too late.

 

noted, sir!

 

You will know it if you need them. Probably. I have bad tires sound like wheel bearings. When in doubt, rotate tires and change pressure. I tear everything up usually, except the 4runner. Most dependable 4wd ever made.

 

Wow, quote of the year right here!

Wise words. Great advice, especially on vehicles that are otherwise reliable and durable. At some point, overdoing it with maintanance carries more risk of screwing something up, than just doing regular inspections and keeping a normal maintainance schedule. If it aint broke, don’t fix it!

And sometimes, if you’re not sure if something is wrong, it’s better to monitor and wait until you can be sure something is wrong.

 

For normal street driving, your steering rack is going to seep fluid well before your tie rods wear out. Inspect the steering rack bellows for fluid stains at every oil change. When you replace the steering rack ($1k OEM plus labor), the rack comes with inner tie rods. The outers are sold separately; typically the joint boot will leak grease before the joint goes bad.

 

My boots are stained from early seepage but has since remained dry. I hear that’s pretty commonplace from those weak Toyota steering rack seals. My concern isn’t so much the rack but the tie rod ends, that ball and socket joint at the inner rod and the knuckle at the outer, either developing play from bigger wheels, tires and off roading. I am glad to learn that the inner tie rods are separate from the rack so that in the event that ball and socket develops play you can just change those out and still keep your rack if it’s in good shape.

 

If you’re worried about the tie rods strength or longevity you could just upgrade…

Controversial mod but I didn’t want to bend/ break a tie rod. This will do until I pull the trigger on a Tundra/ LC rack swap