here are some clues, excessive wear on the inner tire on the passenger side, while driving steering wheel is all over the place. It pulls left right, very sloppy steering. Wheel has movement up and down, but not side to side. Lots of cluncking as well.

is it a tie rod?

 

Up and down movement is ball joints, excessive camber wear is also a sign of ball joint wear. Lift your car again and move the wheels up and down. Check out the upper and lower ball joints as you shake them. You should be able to see which one has play.

 

crap, well I guess have tie rods forsale


does anyone know symptoms of a bad tie rod?

 

A bad tie rod would have side to side play...meaning that if you lifted your wheels off the ground and grabbed the back of the tire with two hnads, one on each side, it will have some play (small amount of movement).

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bigkvn77 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Up and down movement is ball joints, excessive camber wear is also a sign of ball joint wear. Lift your car again and move the wheels up and down. Check out the upper and lower ball joints as you shake them. You should be able to see which one has play. </TD></TR></TABLE>

It does sound like a bad ball joint btw!!!

 

crap, well thats great. How can i tell if its the top or the bottom?

When inspected last night, I couldn't really tell. Will the rubber boot of the ball joint have play?

 

You look at each ball joint while having someone move the tire up and down for you. For the lower look at where it goes into the lower control arm for movement. For the upper look at where it goes into the upper knuckle. They should have absolutely no play, so if you move the tire up and down and see they are moving within those spots, thats an issue. To be honest I have seen many more uppers than lowers go bad. Good luck!!!

 

its obvious, the uppers are more expensive!

thanks for your help.