any thoughts on why my tie rods are ruined after a month of driving. I have replaced each side four times in the last year.

could there be a stronger brand out there maybe for another car or something I could use.

ps. never use oem mazda tie rods, one of the worst parts to ever go on my car!

 

By ruined do you mean bent? have you gotten a new alignment after each replacement of the tie rods?

 

I got mine on eBay about 3 years ago from a seller in Mississauga ON. Aside from the boots cracking they are in good shape.

 

ya mine cracked too, but energy suspensions sells new urethane boots

 

Try greasing them? I had a defective grease gun, which cost me a set of tie rod ends. I think they lasted for a few months before going all sloppy on me. Turns out my grease gun was not actually greasing anything.

 

Anybody that wears out four pair of tie rod ends in a year is doing some happy driving.

 

it is the inside tie rod that is failing.
ps. mazda oem tie rods cannot be greased, the ones I have been buying from vb or bd or whatever they call them selves now are greasable and seem to be a little high quality.

The pivot point of the tie rod seems to fail regularly, as in the tie rod loses all strength, the piece with the threads will be able to spin very freely all the way around resulting in the bad steering response, where as when the rods are new it is difficult to move at all.

I do run 17'' wheels and drive fast/drift the car regularly, so I'm wondering if there is a higher strength tie rod anyone uses?

when i'm on the highway taking a turn at about 70 I can feel the tie rod give out, when this happends the car will feel like I just jerked the wheel at corner turn in and bite in really hard. Aside from that vague and non precise steering is my symptoms. along with creaking when low speed/reversing/parking

 

yes I have had the car aligned about 5 times this year

 

this is just a theory, but you did say that you drift regularly, that could be a direct response to the tie rods because of the straingh thats being put on the front tires and all its components, thats just a theory though.

 

Sounds more like a bad ball joint than a tie rod, based on your description of the issue. My only other thought would be that perhaps you are over tightening them on installation. Were they installed with a torque wrench?



.

 

what's the offset on the wheels? we bent a ball joint on the race car too, and we wear out the cheapies quickly.

but the rx7 stuff is better, there might be a reason why you're the only one wearing em so fast

 

I do drift, usually in the rain but I had a few track days in the dry.

my offset is +35 so it's not too extreme or anything.

i do need to replace ball joints, I have new ones but i'm a little scared to tackle this on my own. especially in winter.

when I push down on the strut tower, the car will make a knock sound and directly come from the ball joint. i guess that is the issue.

anyone have a write up on ball joint removal/install. the current ones were replaced before, they have been tack welded on.

 

while you are in there you may wanna check to make sure the tie rods can go thru the whole suspension travel without getting bottomed out, you could align em so there is binding going on

 

man aaron still having problems with that....i know i still need to replace mine...

 

hmm, please go into greater detail on how you would go about this, i have coils in the front so the susp doesn't travel very far to begin with. It could be possible this is affecting my set up tho.

 

um how to explain...

each joint has a range of motion, right? and the spindle and steering are about 90 different from each other, or something.

it is possible to have the angle of the tie rods such that at some extreme (steering lock or suspension movement) has a rod running out of travel...

i dunno that you could do this 5 times in a row, but its worth looking at....

we just rebuilt the suspension in the race car (honda) and we bent a few ball joints too, with sticky tires we are exceeding the loads honda built it for...

 

yeah, as soon as I can find some help and a garage the ball joints are being replaced. they are wobbly. every bump makes the knocking sound. Thanks man!

 

There is a write up in the archives done by member 64mgb on the ball joint replacement.

https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generation-specific-1979-1985-18/replacing-ball-joints-502398/

 

I've replace my ball joints twice. The first set wore out prematurely due to a faulty grease gun (thought it was greasing, but wasn't). Both times I used a ball joint press I rented from Autozone. No problem, just be careful that everything is lined up correctly before pressing the new ones in.

If yours are spot welded, you can just grind the weld off and still make the swap yourself.

Good luck....