ok so heres whats up. 97 civic hatch. i had to get an alignment and new tires so i took it to the shop and they gave me to the new tires however tnot the alignment. BC they said the right inner tie rod is worn out which will couse the alignment to go out anyways. (they were going to charge me $214.00 to replace the tie rod so me and my friend did it ourselves) now that we replaced it the car pulls EVEN MORE to the right, and the whell is not straight even though im going straight. it wasnt like this before i replaced the tie rod..?why is it doing it now?

and for some reason it sounds like im running over dirt on the road...i know the road isnt dirty bc it made that sound underneath my car for 15-20 minutes. im getting ther alignment tm but i was wondering if that would fix these problems? thanks for the help!

 

Did you replace the inner and outer tie rods?

 

Noob suspension 101:

Imagine your feet are your front wheels and there is a rod connecting both of your heels together. (The rod being your steering rack). If you shorten or lengthen the rod, it moves the heels of your feet apart or together. When you put the new tie rod on, it may have been a different length and pushed the wheels apart or pulled them together. This creates what is referred to as "toe in" or "toe out". Ideally we want 0 degrees of toe on these cars for the best tire wear and handling. What probably happened is you simply threaded the new tie rod end link on too far or not as far as the other and it threw the toe off.

Since you're getting an alignment, you may as well do this right the first time. If one tie rod is shot, the other is probably not far behind unless you tore a boot or something. I would just replace them in pairs. It's $40 now versus another $40 later and another $60 for another alignment. If you're lowered, you may want to check your ball joints also. Those are something you do NOT want to have fail while driving.

If you buy new suspension parts like ball joints and tie rod end links, spend the money on Moog brand parts. At Advance Auto Parts you get a lifetime warranty on them and they will last as long as the originals did. Or find the part number and look for it on Amazon.com to save some money.

 

sorry i forgot. they said the right inner tie rod is worn out, that is what i replaced.

 

thanks a lot thunmper i shall check back with you and tell you what they said tm, that very well could be a possibility (about the toe in and out).

 

hmm, still I'd say replace them in pairs. The second is always easier.
I'd very much expect it to be toe if it did it right after.

 

because you need to have it aligned you just replaCED a part that affects toe and now it is out of wack bring it back to shop to have them align it