I broke a tie rod end last Thursday on my Dodge 1500 P/U. I was fortunate that it happened in the right lane & I was able to get it to the shoulder. The question is what did breaking the tie rod end do to the suspension if anything. I fixed it yesterday and tonight I took it out for a test drive on side streets and the expressway. I did not hear any funny noises like clunks, (the city is repaving the street I drove on, I still did not hear any clunks), there was no vibration and the steering seemed to be okay. I just want to be safe.
A tie rod end is a steering component. So the only thing to check is to make sure it didn’t damage the inner side wall of that tire.
Would you call that a pucker factor of 8? From a scale of 1-10.
Tester
Most likely there is no other damage but I would get the ball joints checked.
You will need a ft alignment.
If things are bad enough that a tie rod end snapped then you should inspect every suspension component on the car because it’s possible a ball joint, another tie rod end, etc. could be right behind this one.
Nah, it wasn’t that bad, probably around a 5. The more I think about it, and looking at the tie rod end, it was probably caused by a lack of grease, I couldn’t find any on the broken part. I am going to replace the other one, the truck has 146,000 miles on it so it is probably due.
Thanks for the help.