supraken

iTrader: (1)

So the other day I was backing up pulling out of a parking spot. As I turned my steering all the way to the left backing up, I hear what sounds like my tires rubbing and I can also feel some resistance backing up. I get off the car to check around the tires, nothing is closet to even touch. Get into the car drive around with wheels turned left and right, nothing. The noise only comes when I turn the steering all the way to the left and backup.

The other thing I noticed was that recently the car has been extremely sensitive to uneven road surfaces, my steering wheel would pull left or right if there is even a slight slant in the road.

Any clue what this might be related to? wheel bearing?? bent control arm?

tmnhs81

My guess, check your control arms and tie rods. Bent control arms/tie rods often create these kind of pulls.

supraken

iTrader: (1)

hmm... I'll check those... any ideas where the noise is coming from?

tmnhs81

Dunno. I wasn't there...lol jk

bgsm1th

I'm bumping for a slightly related issue.

I have my FX35 in for basic tire rotation, and while on the stand, the tech is telling me it needs new outer tie rods up front.

His litmus test was the grab the tire and shake it. Both drive/pass fronts. There was a little play to it, but of course, he said he would replace them right away if he were I. Quoted me at $468 to replace both.

Two questions:
1) I have never noticed any issues while driving, does this really need replacing? What's worst case scenario if I let this slide?
2) $468 seems steep considering the parts are $80-$100 total and I'm pretty sure I could do this myself in an hour.

All thoughts and opinions are appreciated!

VQPower37

so if ur car has become more sensative to bad roads and pulls because of slants in the road ... its highly likely that the control arms may be bent?

S A CHO

Well, worst case scenario (and I'm talking worst case here, not even close to what you've described bgsm1th) is this happens when a tie rod breaks:



Honestly, I wouldn't be too worried about a very small amount of movement, however just know that the handling will be like new once you replace them. If you've ever noticed sloppy handling in a car where the steering wheel can move an inch off centre and the car doesn't change direction at all, those are worn tie rods.

As for the OP, when the car tends to wander on the road like you've described it could be a case that the wheels are out of alignment and you will need to take it to a shop for an alignment. Check your inner fenders to see if there are any rub marks, or what I did to diagnose something similar was have somebody outside the car as you are turning in reverse, go slowly and have them look directly into the wheel well to see if they can notice any rubbing.

Did you hit any big pot holes or curbs recently?

bgsm1th

Thanks SHO!
Any thoughts on the cost/labor time to replace?

S A CHO

Honestly, I can't really guestimate how much it would be because every car is a little different. I know on my SHO I did both my tie-rods in under an hour. It really was as simple as undoing 1 castle nut and unscrewing them from the old ones off of the inner tie rods and screwing the new one back on. Not sure what the suspension set up is on the Infiniti but I'd imagine it's a little more involved than that.

Also remember that when tie rods are done an alignment must be done as well. Perhaps your mechanic has added that to the total as well. Alignments are usualy in the $90 area.

RaviNJCLs

iTrader: (4)

Take it to a reputable mechanic. I had my I35 in for a rotation as well and got the same line from the tech. He said that they were bad and needed to be replaced. I took it to my mechanic and he basically said that there is a reason that some people are stuck rotating tires and that there was nothing wrong. That was about 50K miles ago.

My mechanic said that if I did have to replace them that with parts, labor and alignment it would be a couple hundreds.

dallison

That sounds pretty normal considering it is the dealer.

Gfaze

Holy crap that's expensive! Buy them and install them yourself. Most of the time you just remove the castle nut holding the tie rod to the spindle assembly, knock it out with a hammer, then unscrew the tie rod off of the inner tie rod. Both parts usually have an area where you can use a wrench to hold one while turning the other. When installing the replacements, screw it back in being careful not to pass the point where the old one stopped. In this case the dirt and grime built up on the parts is very helpful. Then slide the stud or whatever it's called through the spindle and tighten the nut to factory specs. Take it in for an alignment after you're done.

As you said, parts will run you $80-$100 plus the alignment which can run from $60-$100 depending on the shop. So at the most you'll spend $200, saving yourself $268. If you choose not to do it yourself I wouldn't pay anymore than $300.

S A CHO

That's exactly what it was like on my SHO, but the outter tie rod looked like this:



The reason why I think his is a bit more involved is because the outter tie rod for a 2008 (guessing the year) FX35 looks like this:



Quite a bit different, the labour may be a lot different as well.

bgsm1th

Thanks for the input all!

As I suspected from second 1, this was
a) not immediately necessary
b) too f'ing much

Of course, now that this kid has said something, I'm hyper sensitive to the situation. And being this is my wife's ride, I want to make sure it's all kosher. I'm going to buy the parts online for a total of $82 and see if I can get the install and alinement for $150. If not, there is a great DIY write-up on Infiniti Scene (dot) com that is specific to the FX.

Now that my job has relocated, I need to find a new independent mech. that I can trust.

Gfaze

:shakehead The second pic is of an inner tie rod end. The silver end threads into the rack & pinion and the outer tie rod end (1st pic) threads onto the other end of the inner tie rod end.

bgsm1th

This is an outer tie rod on a FX35:

Gfaze

^ Well you only circled half of it but yeah, that's the outer tie rod end.

That thing is a piece of cake to change. You should be able to do both of them in under an hour.

S A CHO

No wonder I couldn't recognize it as an outter tie rod