VictorTL

AlanW

I believe it might be the inner tie rod a little loose on the end of the rack. The outer tie & the rod seem to be rotating all the way back into the rubber boot. There is a metal washer that you bend on each side to lock the inner tie onto the rack. It's hard to get it tight & everything lined up. If the inner tie loosens on the rack end, it can rotate a little back & forth till the bent washer stops it. It can't really unscrew, but can have some slack in it.

How does it sound & feel when driving the vehicle?
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VictorTL

AlanW

What year model & how many miles on it? Chances are all the tie rods are worn. If you pay to have someone to disassemble one tie rod, it's much better just to replace all 4 tie rods and only pay for one alignment

VictorTL

AlanW

Yes, the outer ones are easy to replace, but you will need to get aligned afterwards. If the outer tie rods are worn, the inner ones will be also or soon will be.
The inner ones do require a special wrench and are tricky to get them tightened properly & locked in place. You don't want to replace the outer ones, pay to get it aligned, then have to go back & replace the inner ones and pay for another alignment.

!05,000 miles is kind of early for them to be worn out, but very possible. Could just be the inner ones are loose on the rack end. But if you are going to pay to have someone get into it, just redo all of them if you can afford it.

VictorTL

stickercutting

The outer tie rods are OK to make that noise when on the car, it's rare that the suspension would cause that kind of movement to even make that noise. Replace inner and outer tie rods at the same time. The only way to really check the outer tie rod for major play is to take off the bottom cotter pin and remove the bolt of the outer tie rod; you can do this easily by just taking the tire off and using a 19mm closed end wrench or socket, and using a hammer to hit the inner tie rod out on the threads lightly, and hitting the knuckle some to shake it loose.

The inner tie rod end, you can't really check for play without taking the outer tie rod loose from the knuckle that it's currently attached to. If you take the outer tie rod main nut off, and pull the outer tie rod out of it's normal placement you can lift the tie rod arm assembly up and see if there is any play in the inner tie rod. If you can lift the whole assembly up and there is resistance, then it's good, if you can lift it up and let it go and it bounces or feels really loose, you need to change it whether there is knocking like play in it or not.

The tool I used for the inner tie rods with about 4 extensions, is this:
For Inner Tie rods, you need to remove the black boot that is covering them after counting the number of rotations it took you to remove the inner tie rods and knocking loose the 19mm adjustment nut on the arm that holds the inner tie rod in place. You will need a pair of snippers to cut off the factory silver band that's the furthest in on the inner tie rod boot, you won't be reusing this and can reattach with a black zip tie. Use a pair of pliers to compress and remove and keep the outer, smaller band that's only about a 1" clamp style piece.

Buy OEM inner (and outer!) tie rods, maybe some new black bellows if yours look old (bellows are the OEM name for the boots that go over the tie rods) get some blue thread locker that you will apply to the inner tie rod threads and you'll need the tool to knock loose the locking washer on the inner tie rod. Before attaching the tool by tightening down the 2 14mm bolts, use a pry bar and a hammer to knock back the 2 metal tabs currently holding the tie rod on.

Once the tabs are knocked away far enough on the inner tie rod, tighten the tool around the inner tie rod and tighten the 2 nuts. Once it's tight, you're ready to spin. Get a few breaker bars, enough to get the ratchet or breaker bar outside of the car, then put a good amount of (unnatural feeling) force onto the tool. It will break away suddenly and the tool honestly looks by design that it would never work, but it does. Don't try to use a impact on the amazon tool, it's not how it works and it won't function correctly, a breaker bar is the only way.

Your old tie rod is off, when putting the new tie rod in, you will want to set the (included with your new OEM inner tie rod) lock washer in place first, it has 2 protruding tabs on it that sit inwards on the steering rack loosely, keep this lock washer in place with one hand and then spin on the new inner tie rod slowly with the blue thread locker applied to the inner tie rod theads. After it's finger tight, it's set, tighten inner tie rod down to 33ftlb (I think thats the spec) and then you'll need to get creative to bend over the 2 locking tabs on the nedw lock washer, which come forwards over top of the inner tie rod. A hammer works, I used a combination of a little hammer, the back end of a breaker bar, it's hard to get into, so try above the inner tie rod and try below, underneath the suspension to get the 2 tabs knocked over top of the inner tie rod to make sure it doesn't move. Something long, with a lot of sudden force does best.

Put some silicone grease on your new black bellows (the black rubber boot) at each end, and slide over top of the inner tie rod. I had to get up under the car and push to really get enough force for them to snap into place correctly, you'll know it when they are on as they snap in nicely. Once they are on, use a black zip tie which is sort of just a security band for the boot, not really doing a lot. Put your little 1" black band back on that you saved when you took off your old inner tie rods.

Put the 19mm jam nut onto the inner tie rod, then screw the outer tie rod back in, counting the number of turns it took you to take it off. Tighten the 19mm jam nut, then you're good to go!

My inner tie rids would make a grumbling, rumbling sound over anything, even a smooth gravel road. Sounded like it was thumping over and over again. When I took the outer tie rod off, the drivers inner tie rod would bounce, yes, bounce. The new rods you can barely move because they are under so much resistance. Even though nothing was torn and nothing looked out of the ordinary, once I took the outer tie rod off, I could check the movement and clearly that was the problem. I didn't have the play in the arm or knocking sounds that other people experience to prove that their inner tie rods are bad. If you suspect they are bad after trying the easy stuff like sway bar end links and sway bar bushings, then you should move to the inner tie rods before trying to replace shocks.