Wayward wheel

[Bigblue99]

Good morning folks,

I have a 98 Chevy cavalier that had some trouble yesterday. Attached is a picture of said trouble. Based on my limited knowledge I need a little help. It appears that's grease all over thecv joint. If so, my research says it's done for and needs to be replaced.

The tie rod end separated as you can see. Is doesn't look "broken" though. Can it be screwedback (haven't thoroughly checked thread yet) or does it need to be replaced too?

Lastly, did issue1 cause issue 2 or is my luck just that bad?

Thanks

[Bigblue99]

oops, here it is

[shorod]

Sorry, still no image. You need to upload the image to a photo sharing website, then link to that photo here, rather than trying to attach the image.

-Rod

[Bigblue99]

That's weird, I see it on my end as an attached thumbnail? I'll try to figure it out

[Bigblue99]

2nd attempt

[shorod]

It worked that time.

From the image, my guess is that outer tie rod end is NOT the correct one for your car. The thread pattern in the outer end looks much more coarse thread than the inner tie rod end that mates with it.

The grease on the CV joint boot does not quite look like what I'd expect to see from a split CV joint boot. For one, the grease looks quite clean, like it recently ended up on the boot from the can or tube. It does not look like grease that's been lubricating the inside of a CV joint for several miles. Also, usually if a CV joint boot splits, the grease slings all over the suspension, fender well liner, and inside the wheel. That does not appear to have happened here, so either the grease came from elsewhere or you caught it pretty much right as it split, before the car was driven at much speed that way.

Do you know much history on this car? If the thread pitch is in fact different for the tie rod ends, it's unlikely that you could have driven the car very many miles before this came apart. Did you just recently have some service work performed? The threads inside the outer end look quite a bit cleaner than the threads on the inner end as well which is suspicious. Have you tired sliding the inner end back in the threaded hole of the outer end? Will it slide in, or does it need to be threaded? Does it bind if trying to thread it?

-Rod

[Bigblue99]

Thanks for the reply. It all came apart just as my wife was pulling out of the driveway (thankfully). The outer tie rod I got from autozone a little more than a year ago so it's fairly new. I haven't tried to put it back together yet but I plan on giving that a shot soon. I don't know too much history of the car though.

[shorod]

If you have a large tap and die set, I'd suggest you use the thread pitch gauge to identify the thread of the inner tie rod end. The use the matching tap to see if it fits the outer tie rod end properly. Seems odd though that it would survive a year without issue.

As for the grease on the boot, I'd suggest you clean the grease off as well as the boot, then carefully inspect it, particularly the valley's between bellows, for any signs of cracks going all the all through.

-Rod

[MagicRat]

Since the inner and outer tie rod ends are not broken, either they came unscrewed (indicating improper assembly) or the threads pulled out, indicating a faulty part.

Shorod correctly suggests the outer rod may be incorrect for the application, in that the threads are not compatible. The fact they went together in the first place implies the connection between the two was very weak.

FWIW experienced mechanics know that occasionally incorrect parts are sold. You may order the correct part, but for whatever reason they sell you the wrong one. Sometimes the label on the package can be correct but the part inside is wrong. So experienced mechanics know to carefully observe the appearance of the new part, and how it behaves when being assembled, to spot any problems.

If Autozone installed the part, they were grossly negligent, and you need to find the receipt and take the matter up with them. If you installed the part, I humbly suggest you take the car to a professional mechanic to identify and replace the faulty parts with correct ones.

[vgames33]

How did it drive prior to coming apart? Has the steering wheel been straight? If it slowly came apart over the past year I would expect it to have been pulling pretty badly for a while now.