One of the most important components of safe movement is the serviceability of the steering mechanism. This vehicle mechanism consists of various elements, the performance and wear of which affect the comfort and safety of both the driver and his passengers.
Consequently, severe wear of parts is not only undesirable, but completely unacceptable. One of the components of the steering mechanism is the tie rod end., which is the subject of this article. Below we will look at the causes and signs of wear, we will inspect the part and the sequence of actions when replacing it.
Diagnostics allows you to determine when it is necessary to change the tips.
Steering end- This is a steering element in a car that provides mobility and rotation of the wheels to the desired angle. Its principle is based on a ball joint. On one side the tip is attached to the steering rod, and on the other it is connected to the steering knuckle. The main “enemies” of the steering tip are moisture, dirt and bad roads.
Purpose and design features
This part performs the most important function - the transmission of motor force in the “steering column-steered wheels” chain between parts with a variable contact angle. That's why tie rod end It is made in the form of a hinged element, having moving parts in the design. Depending on the type and features of the automotive control system, there are from four to six tips in one car.
The steering tips in the vast majority of cars are extremely simple, which ensures a high level of their reliability. In general, this part consists of eight main parts, these are:
- a housing in which the axle shaft is built;
- a ball pin on which a thread is cut;
- an insert, most often made of Teflon, designed to fix and limit the movement of the ball pin;
- a cover that covers the body of the device, which prevents debris from getting inside that could damage the tip;
- a neoprene cover that protects the mechanism from foreign objects from the finger side;
- a ring with which the case is fixed on the finger;
- a spring that attaches the case to the body;
- finger nut.
Almost all steering ends have the same design, differing mainly in size and the materials from which their parts are made.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED DURING THE WORK PROCESS
- jack;
- a set of keys;
- a puller for pressing the tip pin out of the lever; if there is no such thing, a hammer with a pry bar will do, but changing it will be much more difficult;
- calipers;
- copper grease and WD-40.
Symptoms of malfunctions
If you do not pay attention to the wear of the tie rod ends, the ball pin will become loose and jump out of its socket at the first decent bump. There is no need to explain for a long time what this entails: the wheel will become uncontrollable, and the driver will lose control of the car. How to determine that there are problems with the hinges and the car’s chassis needs to be checked:
- the first sign is a dull, frequent knocking sound when driving over small bumps, especially in turns;
- as a rule, extraneous sounds are heard from one side, but simultaneous wear of two tips also occurs;
- the free play of the steering wheel increases;
- when negotiating a turn on an uneven road, you can feel a tapping sound on the steering wheel;
- At the last stage of wear of the tips, the car has to be literally “caught” on the road, since due to the play of the ball pins, the wheels can deviate by 2–3° from the straight line.
Note. Unfortunately, such signs are observed not only as a result of problems with the steering rack, but also as a result of wear of the bearing of the rotary bipod and the pendulum. The exact result will be shown by a check performed by car service employees or independently in a garage.
If you find one of the listed symptoms in your own car, you should not delay diagnosis. Especially if the tips have served more than 40 thousand kilometers. To carry out the check, you will need an inspection ditch; hanging the car on a jack will not allow you to swing the rod in the desired direction.
To check the tie rod ends yourself, use the step-by-step instructions:
- Drive the car exactly in the center of the inspection hole so that you can easily reach the hinges. If the ditch is too narrow, the car will have to be moved twice in different directions.
- Support the rear wheels with wheel chocks.
- Grab the rod with your hand as close to the tip as possible. Rock the hinge up and down to feel the play.
- A small elastic resistance indicates that the spring is working and there are no critical gaps. Significant play is felt immediately.
- Rotate the rod several times around its own axis. If it flows easily, literally dangling on the ball pin, the tip should be replaced.
Advice. When swinging the rod, do not confuse the hinge play with free play of the steering rack or a broken pendulum bearing.
To check the integrity of the anthers, an inspection hole is not needed. It is enough to turn the wheel and lift the car with a jack. The hole in the rubber boot is discovered thanks to thick lubricant, which is squeezed out from the inside through a gust.
Replacing the steering tip is also not a big problem; the only special tools you need are a puller to push the ball pin out of the steering knuckle eye. Please note an important nuance: after replacing the linkage, the camber angles of the wheels must be adjusted. You cannot make the adjustment yourself, so you will have to visit a car service center. 
REPLACING THE STEERING END BOOT
It often happens that the steering tips themselves are in good condition, but a visual inspection reveals a rupture of the boot. If you leave it in this condition, it will soon become unusable and will have to be replaced.
The sequence of work when replacing the steering tip boot is the same as when completely the only difference is that after pressing it out of the steering knuckle of the strut, you need to remove the ring securing the boot and replace the damaged one with a new one.
Before this, it is recommended to remove the remaining old grease and fill the new boot with lithol. It is important not to overdo it when doing this, otherwise the new boot may tear from excess lubricant.
The steering end is a rod with a hinge device at the end. There is a liner and a washer inside the hinge; they prevent premature wear of the parts. Lubricant is placed in the hinge; all this is protected by a boot from moisture and dirt. On the opposite side of the hinge, the rod has a thread for connecting to the steering rod. The hinge pin itself also has threads. The pin is threaded through the hole on the pivot pin and secured with a nut. In this way the tip is connected to the trunnion.
Malfunctions and causes of malfunctions of steering tips
The main malfunction of the steering tip is wear of the hinge joint. Rapid wear occurs due to moisture or dirt getting into the connection itself. This happens due to damage to the anther. Then the tips have their own specific service life - they are changed after about 40 thousand kilometers. The steering knuckle may be damaged as a result of an accident or collision with an obstacle.
How to identify steering problems
When buying a used car, there is a high probability that it may have various faults. Defects in the steering, including tips, can be identified by getting behind the wheel of this car.
The first thing to do is turn the steering wheel. Too much free play in the steering wheel suggests wear on the steering system parts.
Another way to find out defects is to take the car for a ride. Heavy steering when turning can indicate a malfunction. If the car moves to the side when the steering wheel is released, it is also worth considering whether everything is in order.
Worn parts of the steering system can be indicated by various knocking sounds in the front suspension while driving on rough roads. But it will be difficult for a beginner to determine what exactly is knocking - the parts of the suspension itself or the steering.
Troubleshooting tie rod ends
A faulty tip can be detected with sufficient accuracy using a car lift.
The first method is the simplest - using visual inspection. A defective tip may be deformed due to impact. A torn boot also gives reason to think. If the tip is wet, the lubricant has most likely leaked from it and the part needs to be replaced. A tip with an unnaturally discolored metal, probably in the last stage of its existence - it overheats and jams.
Finally, you can check the play in the ends by tugging on the tie rods using a pry bar. Play in the hinge joint indicates the unsuitability of the part. When the steering tip jams, the rods move with great difficulty.
Conclusion
By checking the steering parts before purchasing using these methods, you can immediately decide which parts will need to be changed immediately after purchasing the car. You shouldn’t refuse to buy because of such little things as faulty steering ends, but you can’t drive with such faults.
According to the Traffic Rules, the main criterion for the serviceability of a car’s steering is the total play, which for passenger cars and trucks and buses based on them should not exceed 10 degrees. But the steering is not just a steering wheel, the free play of which is used to measure the total play, but a set of components that, when the driver rotates the steering wheel, ensure the required direction of movement of the car by turning its front wheels.
Which of these components most often becomes the culprit for exceeding the permissible total play, making it impossible for the vehicle to pass a state technical inspection and obtain permission to participate in road traffic? According to the statistics of calls to service stations, the most troublesome place in the steering is the outer tie rod ends.
Probably only the lazy don’t know what these tips look like from the outside.
But what happens inside them and for what reasons they fail will be revealed by opening the specimen, the design of which in general terms can be called typical for tips used in modern cars.
As you can see, the tip is a ball joint consisting of a relatively small set of parts.
Based on the functional purpose of the tip, the main ones in this set are the ball pin and inserts made of polymer material, also called crackers.
The liners cover the ball head of the pin, while the lower cracker is constantly pressed against the pin through a round pressure plate by a conical spring. This, firstly, eliminates the gaps that appear in the hinge due to wear of the crackers and the head of the pin, and secondly, the dynamic loads transmitted to the tip when the wheel rolls over road irregularities are damped. Both increase the life of the tip.
The mentioned parts are placed in a housing with a bottom cover-plug. The cover is rolled into the body, and there is a seal between them that prevents dirt from getting inside the body from the plug side.
On the opposite side, a dustproof cover is rolled into the body, the purpose of which is clear from the name. Taking into account the fact that the pin can rotate relative to the body in different directions, the seal of the pin shank is ensured by a special profile of the edge of the hole in the boot.
With this device, the lubricant is placed inside the joint during its production and is not renewed during operation throughout the entire service life of the unit. How the steering tip is connected on one side to the steering rod, and on the other to the steering knuckle lever, we will see a little lower, but for now we will figure out what regulates the service life of the considered structure.
Since everything depends on the backlash, therefore, parts that can wear out are under suspicion. In this regard, crackers seem to be the weakest link. Their wear is caused not only by friction against the head of the pin, but also by the impacts that the crackers have to experience when carelessly driving through holes at high speed, which can cause the material of the crackers to collapse.
The spring in the tip absorbs impacts, but its damping capabilities are not at all unlimited - it all depends on the force of the impact, and it is determined by the speed with which the wheel hits the edge of a pothole in the road.
During manufacturing, the ball head of the pin is cemented and polished, so if it wears out, it wears out much more slowly than crackers. But it can rust. A finger in the tip taken for cutting demonstrates this in the best possible way.
Nothing reminds us that it was once polished. However, such corrosion as on the shank of the pin is not visible on the head. The surface of the head is covered with a layer of something black; rust breaks through this layer only in isolated spots.
But the head looked like this only until I rubbed it with sandpaper.
The black layer came off easily, after which what was hidden underneath became clear. The surface of the ball turned out to be pitted with corrosive shells. They should work like a grater, which speeds up the wear of the crackers. And the black layer is what, apparently, the lubricant that was once embedded in the hinge has turned into over time.
But for the pin head to begin to rust, moisture must penetrate the tip. And it can get inside the hinge through cracks and tears that appear in the dustproof cover, or if the edge of the hole in the cover is no longer sealed. Since no cracks were found in the boot of the sawn tip, most likely it was the leakage of the hole for the shank that caused the tip to fail.
Wear and corrosion - there are no other operational reasons that necessitate replacement of tie rod ends. Accordingly, in order for the tips not to fail prematurely, only two conditions must be met - the tightness of the dustproof covers and the absence of large loads at the points of contact of the ball head of the pin with the liners.
Unfortunately, keeping the boots under control, periodically checking their condition for cracks and tears, only makes sense in those tip designs where the cover can be replaced. This is not provided for the tip that has fallen under the cutting disc of the grinder. The second condition for the durability of the tips is easier - it’s enough not to “fly” in a car, without dismantling the roads.
In the kinematic diagram of the steering drive, steering ends connect the steering rods with the steering knuckle levers of the wheels. Using a rod with an internal thread, which is a continuation of the body, the tip is screwed onto the threaded end of the steering rod, and the tip is connected to the rotary lever by the shank of the pin.
This means that to replace the tip you only need to disassemble two threaded connections, which, if you want to save money, allows you to change the tips yourself without a significant investment of time and effort.
The logic of the connections suggests the order of operation: first, the old tip must be disconnected from the swing arm, then unscrewed from the steering rod.
The new tip is installed in the reverse order.
There is only one pitfall. Attachment to the rotary lever is ensured by the threaded part of the shank, but in order for the connection of the tip pin to the lever to be clearance-free, part of the shank and the counter hole in the boss of the rotary lever are made conical. It can be difficult to detach your finger from the lever.
Ideally, you should have a device for pressing out the finger. If it is missing, you will have to knock your finger out of the lever. It is better to do this with a punch. The procedure can be made easier if you hit the pivot lever boss several times with a hammer before knocking out the finger. Nothing bad should happen to the boss, but if there are concerns, you can hit the boss through the same drift if it is brass or made of another relatively soft material.
Difficulties with turning the tip out of the tie rod rarely arise, and in order to minimize their likelihood, it is advisable to lubricate the threaded part of the tie rod before installing a new tip.
Since replacing the tip involves removing the wheel, and in the field, work will be carried out using a jack on an inspection ditch or even on the ground, you must not forget about safety and be sure to take all precautions.
There is always an economic effect from repairing on your own, but won’t the savings come out sideways? To prevent this from happening, you still have to visit the service station.
The fact is that after installing a new tip, the total length of the tie rod along with the tip will most likely change, which will lead to a violation of the wheel alignment in the part called toe-in.
You can, of course, calculate the number of turns that will have to be made to unscrew the old tip, and screw in the new one by exactly the same number of turns, but it is not necessary that the part purchased from spare parts will turn out to be an exact geometric copy of the replaced part. Therefore, after replacing the wheel alignment tip, it is better to go.
A car is not only a useful attribute for every modern person, but also creates an increased danger for the driver and passengers. A car can break down at almost any time for a variety of reasons, which can cause people inside the car to be seriously injured. Your task, as a car owner, is to minimize the likelihood of an accident, and as a result, the likelihood of injury. You need to comply with all traffic rules and regularly diagnose vehicle systems.
In accident reports, you can often see the following phrase as the cause: “The driver lost control.” This happens due to normal breakdowns of steering parts or wear. The reason may be in the tie rod ends that connect the steering knuckle and tie rod. These parts are small in size, but extremely important due to their purpose.
Purpose of the steering tip
In different car models, the steering can be designed differently: the steering column and mechanism can be designed differently, the type of carrier may be different. But there is one common aspect - there are always tie rod ends.
Tie Rod Function– transmit translational movements from one steering mechanism unit to another, while the angle between these parts changes slightly. To make such a design, the tips are made in the form of hinges, that is, they are movable. The number of tips varies from 4 to 6 pieces, it all depends on how the steering is designed.
Steering end device
The design of the steering tip includes 8 main elements:
1) A body that has an axis;
2) A pin (or finger) with threads along its entire length;
3) Teflon gasket, the finger moves along it;
4) The crankcase, installed on the body, prevents breakage of the tips from deformation and impacts;
5) A plastic cover located on the finger side, protecting the body and the tip itself;
6) A silicone ring that secures the protective cover mounted on the finger;
7) A spring that helps secure the case to the body more securely;
8) Nut holding the pin.
What is needed to replace the tie rod end
In order to replace the steering tip, you, in addition to time, patience and effort, will need:
1) Jack;
2) Remove the bolts that connect the front wheel to the suspension;
3) Slightly loosen the pin nut, leaving it on the thread to make it easier to use the puller;
4) Put on a puller and use it to squeeze out the finger as much as possible;
5) Completely unscrew the pin nut and remove the latter;
6) Unscrew the locknut on the steering rod;
7) Remove the tip itself from the tie rod;
8) Make a mark according to the location of the previous tie rod, and also calculate the number of revolutions made by the tip body.
After completing these steps, you can replace the old steering tip with a new one. All this will take you approximately 15-20 minutes, but during this time you will guarantee yourself reliable control of the car, and will also partially protect yourself and your passengers from an accident. Just remember that at the end of the replacement procedure you need to carry out a wheel alignment. OK it's all over Now. Good luck to you on roads and off-road.
Steering is one of the important components of a vehicle. Not only comfortable movement, but also safety during driving, both for the driver and for other road users, depends on its condition. This control unit consists of several components that must be checked from time to time for wear and serviceability. One of these elements is the rod and the steering tip (there are two of them in the steering). These parts allow the car's wheels to turn at the required angle, promoting increased maneuverability. And in order to increase the service life of these levers, it is necessary to promptly recognize signs of malfunction of the steering tips.
It is very important to occasionally inspect not only the external condition of the car, but also look underneath it. Thus, it is possible to promptly prevent the breakdown of any part or assembly as a whole. Such a check will not take much time and effort, and you do not have to be an expert in cars to do this. To determine the malfunction, it is better to ask a friend to help you, since it takes two people to determine the presence of play. In addition, you can check the part for mechanical damage.
The rod fails much less often than the tips.
To perform an initial inspection of the steering ends, you need to do the following:
Signs of damage
The latter can be called consumables. Their service life, on average, is no more than forty thousand kilometers. To increase this indicator, you need to drive only on a flat surface and drive the car very carefully.
So, let's look at the main signs of a breakdown that can cause a car to malfunction. 
- Backlash is a clear sign. If, when driving at low speeds, you begin to notice that the wheels of your car are not turning in accordance with the steering wheel, then you need to check the steering mechanism. This should be done urgently; the presence of backlash can lead to the worst consequences.
- Kickback to the steering wheel. If while driving you begin to notice a strong beating of the steering wheel, this is also a sign to check the steering rod and ends.
- The appearance of abnormal sounds. If the boot is damaged, dust appears and settles at the joint. Thus, when this element operates, sounds appear. In the future, such conditions can lead to premature wear of these parts.
It is very important to respond in a timely manner to the occurrence of abnormal deviations in the operation of your car. Try to spend as much time as possible on the diagnosis. This attitude will allow you to keep your car and its components for a long time.
Video “Checking car steering rods”
The recording shows how tie rods are diagnosed on a VAZ car, and also provides tips for identifying faulty tie rod ends.
