An honest shop told me my outer tie rod is bad when I went in forr an alignment. How could he tell it was the outer? What are the odds the inner is stil good and how can I check it? It does mmake noise wwhen going down the road soo I want to ffix asap and parts storeees only have expensive inners in stock. I got an outer though.
Excuse the spelling cell. Kybboard is beiing difficult aand laggy.

 

there's probably play where the joint meets the knuckle. if it was an inner tie rod the whole assembly would move.

 

What car? check Majestic Honda website, they have decent prices on OEM stuff. I just did inners for about 85 for parts. Outers were a bit less maybe 75. With the car on the ground grab your front tires at 9 and 3 o clock and try to wiggle them. My inners were bad and I could see the joint moving slightly and when driving it would make clunking noises when hitting bumps, and when braking.

 

Thanks I'll have to try the wiggle and watch it, it does have play but not sure where. I kinda wanted to fix it asap and not wait for parts in the mail. I supposed I could replace the bad outer and order the rest. Tires are not very good anyway (just got the car 2 weeks ago.)
Online inners are cheap and was thinking it would be best to replace everything so I don't have to realign it if they go bad later. But with 115k maybe not?

 

Jack up the front end and try shaking the tire from side to side (grip it at 3 and 9). If it moves AT ALL, try to isolate where it's moving. When my inner went out, the play was coming from the joint that is located inside the bellows boot on the inner tie rod. I went ahead and replaced both sides on mine and had an alignment done. Car rides great now. Good luck.

 

Up to you where you get the stuff. I dont really like parts store parts because they tend to be cheap and not fit well. With the tie rods you can do outer and inner at the same time, before you unscrew the rods just count how many threads there are exposed, then put the new ones in the same place. At least this way the car wont be totally out of whack. If you have the time you can easily fix the toe angle yourself with some string and a measuring tape.

 

Generally shops tell you to replace things when they see torn boots. 96HB is correct on trying to wiggle the wheel at ( 3 and 9 ) its what I've always done and it works well enough to figure out what parts to change. Any autoparts store will have the parts you need for a pretty good price. Try to get "Moog" parts they are alot better quality then the stores brand. The boots are sometimes hard to find for the inner tie-rods. Hope this helps. Oh if you need any help, as far as advice, PM me

 

Yeah those boots are pretty hard to find, and they are expensive too! I had to get mine from Napa and they were like $45 a set.

 

Thanks, are the store parts that bad? There isn't alot to them and wanted to fix it asap. They had me come out and wiggle the wheel so it wasn't just torn boots. The inner tie rod boot on the passanger side looks fine.
Maybe I'll just fix the bad one and try to align it close myself while ordering a whole set. I know the theory just didn't think you could fit a string across the middle of the tire using a floor jack but never tried.
Just gotta try to get the passanger outer one off, got a torch somewhere, just PB blaster didn't work.
I did ebay special for the Honda and they were nice and tight. Oh yeah the cheap outer I got does have a grease zerk surprisingly. I don't see why they would be any different they are "OE brand" so wouldn't it be the same as from a dealer without the markup? Just kidding.

 

Wheel bearings and tie-rods are pretty simple to diagnose...

For wheel bearings, jack the front of the car up and hold at 12 and 6. Then try and move it back and forth - any play and wheel bearing is bad.

For tie-rods, 9 and 3, check for play. If you have some, try and look at the inner and outer tie-rods when checking for play. If the inner moves, the inner is bad. If it doesn't move but you still have play, the outer is bad.

As far as brands, DO NOT BUY CHEAP EBAY STUFF. When it comes to suspension, you get what you pay for. I am new to Honda's, but for domestic cars OEM or similar quality brands are the best (like Moog, etc.). Just because it has a zerk fitting does not mean it will work just as well or better than stock. Heck, even parts "Made in USA" or "Made in Japan" can be terrible if they were made cheaply.