HtownBlue

Ok recently replaced my inner and outer tie rods on my 2004 RX330. It has some milage on it and the right side was slightly loose so I decided to pull the trigger and do the job.

Tools Needed:
Tie Rod Remover fork or Alligator Jaws
Inner Tie Rod Tool
19MM wrenches, 14MM wrenches
17MM Socket
Jack and stands or lift
Needle Nose pliers for cotter pins
and a few other various tools I cannot remember using.

Loosen Lug nuts and Jack up car and place stand. Remove wheel.

Locate Outer Tie Rod.
You will need to loosen the 19MM nut which secures the position of the tie rod. You can do this some times by simply taking your wrench and loosening it. SOMETIMES though you will need to atttach a 14MM wrench to the rod near the BOOT and use that to secure the rod from rotating AS YOU ARE LOOSENING the large 19MM nut. ONLY LOOSEN THE NUT SLIGHTLY and leave about a 1mm gap between the rod end and the nut. More on this latrer.


Once loosened, the tie rod is ready to be re3leased from the steering knuckle.

Take Lower cotter pin out of Castle nut locatred on bottom side of outter tie rod. Remove pin.
Take 17mm socket and remove castle nut. place nut in safe place if needed for future.

Take tie rod fork and place between steering knuckle and the rubber part of the outter tie rod. Hammer the fork until the rod loosens and pops up.



At this point, you can remove the OUTTER tie rod. You can use the same 19mm wrench to loosen the rod. You may still need to use the 14mm wrench to secure the entire rod from rotating while turning the outter rod.
IMPORTANT!: When removing the OUTTER rod, please count exactly how many rotations you are turning the rod end to remove it. Write this number down. mine was 10 full turns and 1/4 turn.

Next we will remove the INNER ROD BOOT. I purchased new boots which is simply a smart thing to do. The large side of the boot has a ring which needs to be expanded to loosen the boot from the power steering rack. I used a screw driver to do this. See photos.




DAMN WINDOWS CRASHED AFTER I DID ENTIRE WRITE UP before I could post. FML!!!

OK, So you removed the boots. It should look like this:



Now you can focus on removing the inner rod. To do that you need the inner rod removal tool. What is that?? See below.


If you feel the inner rod house around where the ball is, you will feel two flat spots. This is where the tool fitting "bites" the rod and turns it. Use the correct size fitting from the kit and feed it onto the inner rod on the flat spots. See photo.



Now once the fitting is in place, you can use the "MAG LIGHT PIPE LOOKING THING" to remove the inner rod. Time to play fit the U thing into the U thing slot. See photo.


Slide the tool over the rod and onto the inner rod. Use one hand to guide it onto the U fitting and insert it into the U housing.


Now you can attach a 1/2 inch ratchet or breaker onto the tool and loosen. Lefty Loosey.

Break the inner rod free then remove by hand. It should look like this when off:

NOTE!: There is a washer with two notches that fit into the notches on the rack where the rod screws into. If your new kit does not come with these, keep the original one for reuse.


Take new inner rod and hand screw into steering rack. MAKE SURE TO HAVE WASHER IN PLACE. You may need to "hold" the washer in place and hand tighten until the washer can no longer move out of the slots it was meant to stay in.


Attach Tool Fitting to new inner rod
NOTE: Some OEM rods may not have the same fitting size as original. No worries, grab the right size from your kit,


Tighten the inner rod the same way you loosened it with the tool. Righty Tighty.

Now for new boot:
Slide new boot over outter portion of rod and feed ALL THE WAY ONTO RACK. Work the boot until it slides on properly over the "lip" on the rack.


NOTE: I have a clamp tool that makes using the OEM clamps for the inner part of the boot easy to install. HOWEVER, using a simple screw clamp ala a radiator hose style clamp will do fine as long as it properly fits.

Next Slide the outter part of the boot ALL THE WAY up over the lip area on the rod. Then reattach the squeeze clamp via a pair of pliers.

Last part. Take your NEW OUTER Rod, and find the keeper nut that was the 19mm from earlier. Screw on the 19mm nut past where you willneed it to be.
Then time to remember how many turns you used when removing the original. Screw on NEW outer rod counting up to the approximate amount of turns used to take it off, while still allowing the rod end to point downward to insert into steering knuckle.


Tighten 19mm Nut down ONTO OUTER ROD tightly to secure position.


Now feed end through knuckle, tighten castle nut, feed cotter pin through and bend it accordingly and WALAH! You are done. Providing you reattach your tires to the hub that is!

OH almost forgot.....GET IT ALIGNED. That is critical after messing with the rods.

lexus114

WOW!! Thanks for taking the time to share this with us.

HtownBlue

No problem friend.
I am doing my blower fan today or tomorrow and will probably do one for that too. Its making a slight noise so I will fix it and take photos of that and publish.

lexus114

Cool!! ^^^^^ Mine was making some noise, and the dealer said it was just some leaves/debris.

HtownBlue

It could be leaves or debris, but if it is associated with the speed of the fan and changes pitch, it is likely the worn points on the motor friend. The bearing wears thin after millions of ratations and begins to make a clicking type sound with the play that is in the motor bearing. I'll post what I mean this evening if I get to it.

dcdyd

Thanks for doing this which will certainly be very useful for many people here.

alchemist

iTrader: (1)

Great job! Question: what symptoms/issues did your car have with worn out tie rods?

lexus114

Yeah, what he asked?

HtownBlue

When I jacked up the right side, I had "play" when turning the wheel in and out (as if the tires were turning left and right, NOT TURNING THE ACTUAL WHEEL AROUND AND AROUND).

I grabbed the rim at 9 and 3 and tried to turn the wheel. Since the other wheel was down on the ground, it is not supposed to have any play or motion when doing this. Mine had some slight play and gave way a tad bit as the ball had worn on the inner rod fitting, thus allowing the rod to move "in and out" and that transfers through the rod to the knuckle and to the wheel when trying to manually steer the whhel left and right with your hands.

I had previously changed the control arms and ball joints, so I knew tha the play could only be coming from the inner or outer tie rods, as those are the only other things connected to the wheel and steering knuckle. Thus I changed them both (inner and outer) at the same time.

Now if the rack is leaking, simply replace the rack. As it will come with new inner rods. But if you can jack up the vehicle and feel play in the wheel when pushing and pulling from 9 and 3 o'clock, you have something loose. It would likely be the tie rod ends, control arm bushings, or ball joints. In very rare cases you could have a strut issue but I would doubt that.

CAUTION: If you can pull and push at 12 and 6 o'clock and feel play, you are possibly dealing with a bearing issue which needs to be addressed ASAP.

StLucchese

i have to ask how many miles on your 330? Do you come across a lot of rough roads? Just curious

HtownBlue

Lets just say it is over 125K and leave it at that. I put a lot of miles on my car for work and it is not my weekend driver. I figured if I have to be in my car for work a lot, might as well have a nice one to be in.

alchemist

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the reply. I asked my question above because i still cannot find the source of my wife's cars isse:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...tion-help.html

I'll do the test you did and see if thats it.

HtownBlue

Here's what I would do friend:

Do the above tests and see if you have any play in the wheel motion that it irregular. To be even more exact you can have someone feel the tie rod end, ball joint, control arm, etc. while you are trying to manuever the tire in various ways. If you or they feel anything that feels jerky, then you know you've got an issue.

Balance the tires.

With car stopped in drive way, see if when you turn the wheel from left to right and right to left if you can feel any back pressure on the wheel or if you hear any whining from the power steering rack. If so, replace your rack.

Inspect the tires for bubbled walls or warp wear.

Inspect your struts and strut mounts to make sure all botls are tight.

If the vehicle has over 175K on it, replace the bearings if you are hearing a weird noise that fluctuates coming from front end.

Inspect sway bar linkage and sway bar bushings.

Ifr I can think of anything else to inspect, I'll let ya know.

Netman

Great write up! You wouldn't happen to have the torque specs on this would you?

MattRX

I have the torque specs in my 2nd gen RX DIY & Modifications thread