...at least the consequences were catastrophic for the poor tie rod end.
I am REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY lucky that I forgot to bring my lunch to work today! While pulling into a Chipotle, I heard a CLUNK - RUB RUB RUB RUB and basically couldn't steer. Had I not forgotten my lunch, I would have instead been driving on the freeway when this happened! So the car is in my garage because I need to go out and get a 21mm socket.
This is really, really bad because it happened without warning. Even with 72k miles on this car, it is tight and straight. The tie rod end that snapped was the driver's side. I had the car to NTB a few months ago for new tires... they said that the passenger side tie rod end was a bit loose. I verified this when I changed the oil in the car a few weeks after that - indeed the passenger wheel had a little wobble but the driver side was still tight. Needless to say I'm going to replace the passenger side ASAP... and probably replace the tie rod ends at 50k as preventative maintenance here on out.
I am not happy with the anemic front end on this car - the balljoints are smaller than those on my 2001 Chrysler Sebring and in general, the front end on the Charger does not look like it belongs in a 4000 pound, 340+ HP car.
Wow, your saying that everything felt fine till you pulled into chipotle and the thing just snapped, there had to of been some sort of prior warning man !!
Damn man glad your alright. I just got done changing the tie rod ends on my 07 with 28,000 on it. The problem with the tie rod ends on these cars is that they don't have grease fittings on them and the claim from the MFG is that they are sealed for life. Well what happens when that grease breaks down, this exact thing.
So my suggestion is to get the Moog tie rod ends for your car. There's a reason it's called the problem solver. They have grease fittings on them and they look much more solid than the OEM crap that's on these cars to start with. The part number is: ES3571. Rockauto has them for 37.99 a piece. I would definitely recommend getting them both replaced at the same time because you are definitely going to need an alignment after replacing them. There's no way around it. Some people have claimed to come close enough that they didn't feel they needed it, I even tried that method as well but definitely still did the alignment. No need to dish out $$$$ for an alignment twice. Alignment will probably run you about $60-70. So total investment is about $150 which is a fraction of the cost of what the dealer would charge you and about half of what a shop would charge you. They are pretty easy to change and mine took roughly about an hour total and I took my time.
Also another tip for you. If you have an Advanced Auto parts near you, they honored the price match from RockAuto for me in my area. So it wouldn't hurt to ask them if they would price match if you have one in your area. All I had to do was bring in a print out from RockAuto's website showing the price and part number.
Good luck and don't hesitate to ask questions if your going to handle this yourself.
Just replaced mine at 100k with moogs. No grease fitting tho. Not 100% sure of they were the originals. But holy crap were they rusted on. Still have some front end clunking over bumps.
__________________ 06 RT - Pred 93 CAI tune, K&N Drop In, Flowmaster Super 44's, SE coilovers, reso delete, drilled and slotted Baer rotors, Baer ceramic pads ,blacked out EVERYTHING .
Just replaced mine at 100k with moogs. No grease fitting tho. Not 100% sure of they were the originals. But holy crap were they rusted on. Still have some front end clunking over bumps.
I looked at the pictures on Rockauto's website and they show no grease fittings. Hrmmmm.... The ones I got from Advanced Auto had fittings. So there must be some old stock floating around at the stores then.
Mine were not bad at all. I changed mine because I had wobbling going on in the front end and the dealer did an alignment and it still wasn't gone. They checked the front end suspension out and said it was fine. I had suspicion it was still the tie rod ends and the suspicion the dealer was being lazy because it was going to be on their dime. Well after changing the ends the wobble was still there but not nearly as bad. Turns out the tires are the culprit at this point. I added 5 more pounds of air in them and the wobble is almost completely gone. So it must have been from the alignment being out of wack for so long and also the car sat for about a year before the dealer got it. There's weird wear going on in the front and has been there since I got the car.
Oh and as far as the clunking is concerned, there have been a few posts here that people replaced the lower control arm and that fixed their issue. So that might be a possibility. I would have a shop check it out and tell you what's going on and then if it's not that bad of a job, do it yourself and save some $$$$.
...at least the consequences were catastrophic for the poor tie rod end.
I am REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY lucky that I forgot to bring my lunch to work today! While pulling into a Chipotle, I heard a CLUNK - RUB RUB RUB RUB and basically couldn't steer. Had I not forgotten my lunch, I would have instead been driving on the freeway when this happened! So the car is in my garage because I need to go out and get a 21mm socket.
This is really, really bad because it happened without warning. Even with 72k miles on this car, it is tight and straight. The tie rod end that snapped was the driver's side. I had the car to NTB a few months ago for new tires... they said that the passenger side tie rod end was a bit loose. I verified this when I changed the oil in the car a few weeks after that - indeed the passenger wheel had a little wobble but the driver side was still tight. Needless to say I'm going to replace the passenger side ASAP... and probably replace the tie rod ends at 50k as preventative maintenance here on out.
I am not happy with the anemic front end on this car - the balljoints are smaller than those on my 2001 Chrysler Sebring and in general, the front end on the Charger does not look like it belongs in a 4000 pound, 340+ HP car.
Dude this terrifies me. NTB told me 4000 miles ago that my tie rod ends on both sides were even looser than the last time they warned me they were going bad. Both times I took it to the dealership and they told me that it was normal wear/play and that NTB was just trying to get my money. NTB tells me that they don't care where I get the work done because its my life at stake. i can see why now.
Tie Rods are fairly cheap and easy to replace. Scrap that idea of changing them at 50K, and do them at 30K. Moog makes both with and without grease zerks, and I think it depends on the store they get shipped to. I got mine from CarQuest with Zerk Fittings, and I grease them every oil change.
If you keep them tight and greased, they should go to 50K, but yours was obviously not greased for some time in order for it to rust.
Tie Rods are fairly cheap and easy to replace. Scrap that idea of changing them at 50K, and do them at 30K. Moog makes both with and without grease zerks, and I think it depends on the store they get shipped to. I got mine from CarQuest with Zerk Fittings, and I grease them every oil change.
If you keep them tight and greased, they should go to 50K, but yours was obviously not greased for some time in order for it to rust.
I just hit 70k last Friday *weep*. I see a lot of people using Moog on here, I'll have to check them out. NTB wants to charge me almost $900 for the job and my dealership is shady as hell trying to wait out my warranty expiration. On a 1 to 10 scale how easy are they to replace without going to a shop?
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Tie Rod Fail = Catastrophic Consequences!
06 RT - Pred 93 CAI tune, K&N Drop In, Flowmaster Super 44's, SE coilovers, reso delete, drilled and slotted Baer rotors, Baer ceramic pads ,blacked out EVERYTHING .
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