at only 28k miles my tie rods are seized. Thanks to Firestone alignment folks for torqueing them to gorilla specs.

They are also a little rounded off as well. I am thinking about just getting new assemblies instead of getting a torch and trying to break them free.

1-Has anyone seen a write up for tierod replacement?
2-Does anyone know if the generic tierod tool from autozones free rental selection will get the job done?

thanks

 

Hello!

I dug these up for you:

Tools required





And instructions:

 

thank you for that. Do you know if these tools can be rented from autozone?

 

No idea, this document is from BMW/MINI. You might want to print it off and take it with you to show AutoZone and they can see if they have anything that will do the job.

 

Success (kind of) last night! After some PB blaster and MAPP gas action I was able to free up both sides. The inner rod (which has the hex pattern to turn) is made of really soft metal and they were already almost all rounded off. Took a file to get some edges again. Cleaned up the threads, put anti seize and snugged them up again. I think this alignment might be last one I can get out of them before then need to be prematurely replaced. Freaking Firestone!

 

hmm, i poped my tie rod out from the axel housing with a dead blow hammer...... shouldnt need to take out the lower control arm outer ball joints to remove the tie rod ends. but if you need to, there are two bolts on the bottom of the axel housing that you can remove instead of poping off the ball joint from the lower control arm. I found it way easier.