Noticed the other day when my car was up on the rack at work and noticed I could wiggle my tie rods. Are they supposed to move like that? I've had one tech there tell me they are supposed to move like that and that's normal. Do the tie rods on an 06 1.8 sedan usually need to ever get replaced? I don't drive it hard, It's just my commuter car. Car has almost 173,500 on it currently. Please advise!

 

They should only move in a ball like way. That's normal. So there should be slight side to side movement but not up and down. You should be able to gently grab the end bar and go in a clockwise and counterclockwise movement but not up and down and it should be kinda tight. It shouldn't be loose. To test the inner tie rod, when the end is disconnected, you should be able to lift it all the way up and it should stay up. If it falls then the inner tierod is bad and too worn.

 

Just out of curiousity, how many tie rods total on this car?

 

There are two inner tie-rods and two outer tie-rods, one of each on each side.

 

The tie rods should not move independently side to side, up and down, or back and forth once bolted on.

There should not be any movement of the body away from the stud.

The only movement that should happen is a twisting of the tie rod body in relation to the stud. It should twist a few degrees in clockwise/anti clockwise directions.

 

Correct