Tie Rod breakage/noise

I recently bought a company car from my employer & had to drive it 1200 miles to its new home. The previous driver/my boss swore it was in great shape, no worries, etc. Got thru the trip & into the city when I noticed squealing when I braked. Expected car to fail inspection for brakes but boss said brakes were only 5000 miles old. Inspection shop mechanic said a tie rod was very nearly broken & it was a miracle I didn’t loose steering during trip. Do broken tie rods squeal? Never heard of this before.

No tie rods don’t squeal and if your not in the Baja 1000 they don’t break either. (I did break one in the 1978 Baja 1000).

Your tires do. Your brakes will grab and your wheel gets slammed back and then the squeal happens, after that, the wheel breaks the grip of the brake and stops squealing.

OR. The tire squeals because it is severely misaligned and must drag.

No. A loose tie rod will cause the car to wander or the steering wheel will feel loose. I did break one once on my Olds with no warning. It was a year old MOOG part on the freeway and it just snapped. Its not a fun ride but still have some control with one wheel working.

A brake squeel though can be caused by glazed pads, pads that are vibrating in the caliper, or pads that are totally worn out. Sometimes someone is just used to the car and doesn’t notice all the problems someone fresh would.

Tie rods don’t squeal, but that doesn’t mean they one wasn’t ready to fall off. Tie rod ends can come apart (seen one) and that squeal, no matter what the real source was, may have saved a live.

Not being there and with only this limited information I’m inclined to not second guess the shop that looked at it.

Actually, I’m not second guessing the shop. They’ve fixed things for us in small, less expensive ways in the past that other shops wanted to charge hundreds to replace larger components. I was just wondering if there is some noise that would alert someone to a damaged or worn tie rod that I was just confusing with a brake squeal. That noise was only discernable while driving in narrow streets in the city, where there were buildings on each side of the road and not heard in the burbs or during country driving.

Sometimes, there are no noises or signs. Front wheel drive will mask a lot of problems that were obvious with rear wheel drive. Then when the loose tie rod end gets really bad, you can get the tire squeal. With rear wheel drive, the engine would strain to move the car and the transmission would downshift a lot more and the steering would try to pull the car to one side.

In snow or ice a front wheel drive car can have a hard time because there isn’t much traction when the front wheels are trying to point at each other when you step on the gas.

Both front wheel drive and rear wheel drive cars can damage the transmission if the tie rods are worn out.