I was recently told that the tie rod for my front passenger side is loose.
I have two questions.
 
        1.  What is a tie rod ?
 
        2.  How do you tighten it ?

22 responses total.

It's a critical component of the steering system -- it's the thing that
pushes and pulls the wheels in & out to steer.  If it falls off, you are
in BIG trouble.  If you aren't sure where it is, then this is a definite
job for a professional.  Even under the best of circumstances, it
involves grovelling under the car and fighting rusty bolts, grease, and
worse.  If not done properly, it can also lead to accellerated tire wear
and other expensive problems.  GET IT FIXED!!!

Also, I don't think in this case it's a matter of tightening anything, the
rod probably needs to be replaced.  There's probably a loop on either end
of the rod that fits onto a pin, and this has worn out to a wider radius.
Anyway, like marcus said, get it fixed as soon as possible.  It's one of those
things that may go a long time without giving out or falling off, but when it
does you'll be in deep shit.

Like, your front wheels could wind up looking like this:  \    /

Warning: "your tie rods are loose" is a common rip-off at bad
garages.  Get a second opinion.

This was told to me by briarwood ford, while I was picking
it up from their just having done mucho work on it.

My dad has a friend who is able to do it, and will also be replacing
my front brakes too.
whenever I get any money that is.

(1) don't drive it until you have $ to look into it.
(2) take it to a reputable mechanic, as you should always.
        It may cost more per job, but it will be cheaper and
        better all around.

It also usually helps to have a friend who is in the field look your car
over before going to a mechanic for any work whatsoever... not only are they
more likely to be honest about a minor problem that might seem major, oft
times they are able to provide an inexpensive solution to the problem...
rebuilt parts instead of new ones, for example.

Never never never go to the dealership unless your car is under warranty.
Common sense.

But a dealership will have both the expertise and the bullitens for the car.

The dealership will have the bulletins.  If it's a newer car, and if
they aren't so incredibly screwed up that they've lost, misfiled, or
never ordered them (a distinct possibility at the worst dealerships.)
The expertise is a bit more problematical -- you are assuming competent
mechanics, who can read and understand the bulletins!  The best
dealerships will have such people.  The ones that have made a commitment
to quality, have paid top $ for the best mechanics, have sent them off
all the various courses they need to keep up with the technology--mostly
the computer stuff which is rapidly evolving, and of course paid for all
of the expensive tools and parts stock needed to do a good job.

None of this helps, of course, if your car is older than a certain age.
After 7 years, the auto companies often dispose of their stocks of
parts.  The dealerships throw out all their bulletins.  The expensive
tools die, and aren't replaced.  And so forth.  The good mechanics who
used to work on those cars at the dealership have either retired and
moved to florida, gone into management, or have opened their own
independent garage.  It is somewhere in here that things flip - and the
dealership loses most of its advantage in dealing with your car.

The problem lies not with the technical sophistication of the dealerships,
but with the quality (very often, although not always) of their mechanics,
and their willingness to actually carry out the work within n months.

   I heard about the 7 year problem with car parts, but I am glad to
say that our '83 Toyota suffers from no lack of parts from several
vendors.  Perhaps this is changing, or are American cars more prone
to this?

   Good luck with the tie rods in any event.  Having a friend who knows
what they're doing is a wonderful thing.

It helps to buy from companies that still pride themselves on building
things that last.  American companies have long has this thing about
built-in obselescence.  That shows up in their products - time & time
again, wherever they have a choice between doing something that's easy
to build, vs. something that's easy to maintain, they'll go with "easy
to build".  And that makes for some really curious spare parts and
repair problems.  When the upper ball joint went on my Impala, I
discovered that the "official" repair procedure is to drill out the
original equipment rivets, and replace them with bolts.  When the turn
signal and brights went, I was even more amazed.  The turn signal turns
out to be not so bad; a plastic do-hickey that goes in the steering
wheel.  The dimmer switch is another matter entirely.  Turns out it's
mounted half-way down the steering colume, and the repair procedure
includes cutting certain parts (that were formerly one piece) and
installing the replacement part that has this extra tab on it to deal
with the cut bits.  Very weird procedure.

My AMC (with Ford running gear.) required the same procedure with the
ball joints.  I once spent an hour looking for the flasher, but never
did find it.  Even though I could turn it on and hear it ticking away
and I had an official shop manual for the car!  (turned out to be an
intermitent bulb, thank goodness.)

Dunno about AMC, but on recent GMC's, the flasher snaps into the
fuse panel.  "Flahers" rather, the hazard & turn signal are separate.

Not on my '80 AMC.  Twas somewhere behind the instrument panel. The 
seatbelt buzzer and headlamp circuit breaker were in the fuse block.

Good guess though.  It did have a Pontiac engine.

Then the most logical spot would be plugged into the circuit card in the
instrument panel.  Assuming of course they weren't silly and didn't do
anything strange like point-to-point wiring.

I never got that far.  The Inst. panel screws were for the most part stripped.

I got my tie rod replaced this morning.

Sounds kinky, congratulations.

well, well, as a dealer mechanic for the last 8 or so years, i agree
withe the postulations about the same.  good mech's are are hard to find.
great mech's are damn near impossible to find- because... honest and 
pridefull techs become frustrated with crappy managers that want to crank as
much dollars out of the shop as possible.  good friends will usually be honest,
if though inexperienced.  we also get very tired of many things including
burns, dirt, dexron showers, smashed fingers, lost EXPENSIVE tools,  crappy
managers, missing manuals and books, and outright stupid or argumentative
customers.

Who in the hell thinks working on a Toyota is easy or straight forward?
Anyone complaining about their American cars should stop.  At least with
an American car you can rest assured that the part you buy will fit.  You
see, there is a fundamental idea in American manufacturing called inter-
changablilty of parts that seems to escape the Japanese mind.  For my
1982 Toyota Corolla, I needed to change the right rear wheel bearing.
I purchased the part at the local dealership, which had a good reputation.
It didn't fit.  I checked the part numbers, stock numbers and all other
relevent information.  It all checked out.  Upon futher research, it 
turns out that there are several factories that assemble Corolla's, and
that each one uses different size wheel bearings,EVEN THOUGH THE PART
NUMBERS ARE THE SAME!!!  So before you start berating the American car,
THINK.  Also, just because the manufacturer stops producing the part,
doesn't mean that it is unavailable.  The manufacturers of American cars
sell the tools and dies to aftermarket and new-old-stock manufacturers,
leaving little in the way of gaps in availability.  The foreign auto
manufacturers have no such cooperation with new-old-stock or aftermarket
companies that I am aware of.

Yea, I don't have THOSE kind of problems with our '86 Chevy Nova.  Hey!
What's this?  The new bumper sezs "Made in Tiwan" on a little golden
oval sticker and the old bent one sezs Toyata.  Oh well, it fits.  It is
a Chevy though.  (Don't respond to this.  This is and old, old song!)

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