At what mileage did you replace ball joints and/or tie rods?

The truck has 173k on it now, and no records of anything but the upper ball joints being replaced. The boots look ok, and I can't feel any slop with the wheel off the ground, but it doesn't feel 100% on the highway and I have a slight shimmy at some speeds.

As far as tie rods go, are you folks replacing the inner and outer at the same time, or just the outers?

Money is a little tight, but I will only use the high quality parts (MOOG from what I have researched). I am thinking of replacing the tie rods first, and seeing if that fixes the problem. If not, the lower ball joints don't seem like a major project to do after, and it shouldn't require me to get another alignment.

Btw, I called the dealer. They want $65 for each tie rod end, $202 for each inner tie rod joint, and $150 each for lower ball joints. The parts guy had no idea why those inner joints were so expensive. Is that a bit silly or what?

Thoughts/experiences? Thanks

 

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I got my tie-rod ends replace for free at 128,000 miles with my frame recall(they were the originals). They were seized up and couldn't be adjusted for the alignment. They tried to make me pay for it at $783 part and labor. I had to argue for a while but got them free. Amazon has inners and outers for less than $50 each.

 

www.rockauto.com i just did new coilovers and replaced inner/outer tie rods, upper/lower ball joints, and sway bar end links. super tight now but most of the components actually felt good but i already had the parts so i just changed them out.

 

I'm a mechanic, I did that stuff all by myself and I never wait for theses things to be replace when they need it.

I've changed both of my outer tie rod last year at 6 months interval, they probably had last longer if I didn't mades theses holes 2 years ago in their boots to grease them inside to make them last longer... By the way, even with the play on it, I never felt it on the truck behaviors. I knew they were to replace only with the inspection.

My truck is 275 000km (172k miles).

If you inspect them the right way and you don't feel any play, you're gonna replace them for nothing. My 0.02.

 

I have been thinking about replacing my tie rod ends, but didn't simply because what I had wasnt broken, maybe right before my next alignment I will do them, but we will see.

I think for the LCA Ball Joint, you are going to have to take the LCA off the truck, that might require an alignment if you dont mark your positions well.

 

I ended up ordering the poly steering rack bushings, and new inner + outer tie rods.

The bushings came in so I just replaced those this evening. It was kind of a pain in the butt, but not too bad. I did have to drill out one of the sleeves. Drove it around the block and didn't notice a huge difference. Maybe on the freeway I'll notice it more. I should be able to tackle the tie rods once they arrive next week.

 

if you burn off the rubber for the middle bushing, you can reuse that sleeve with the poly bushings. it will save you some time and frustration. just fyi

 

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152,000 miles and I just put a new rack or a rebuilt rack ($263) on mine No core charge so I got to keepthe old one. It was leaking like a fawcett and inner tierods weren't to good. Also put new outer Tierods ($23) on and some 5100 adjustable Bilsteins ($185) on the front.