Tie rod sheared off!

As someone on here once said "It costs a lot of money to save on gas!"

 

i can't speak for anyone in the u/k, but here, this problem is virtually unheard of, and we have some massive road salt issues.
have you owned it since new? seems like something else has to be going on in the suspension system.
would the garage be willing to install a salvage unit?

 

A tie rod does not just snap! There has to be some other underlying factor involved. What comes to my mind is a human induced event, be it accident damage or an oversight during a maintenance (front alignment), where the adjustment clamps were inadvertently left loose.

 

Do you have an ex that is not happy with you? Like Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl?

 

Inner and outer tie rods are readily available. These are serviceable parts that don’t necessitate a steering rack replacement. Find a real mechanic/ technician and he/she will fix it. You’re being hoodwinked!

 

When I look on a US 2010 parts diagram, I don't see individual callouts for the inner tie rods.



That's from Toyota. I wouldn't be surprised if there are aftermarket options.

Maybe UK is different?

 

Sounds to me like when whatever damaged the tie rod also damaged its connection to the steering arm and busted that too hence needing a new steering rack. It was a great force event. Not a repairable item.
Ah I long for the days of the Pittman arm.

We get hundreds of posts of whacky things people do to there cars or what the car has done to them but pretty hard to help without pictures of the carnage.

You have the worlds best camera in your pocket use it. At the very least I would have taken really good shots for my own files.

Post the pics here.

 

I wonder if that figured in to why Toyota decided not to sell inner tie rods as separate parts.

 

It probably has to do with liabilities and Ferderal Safety constraints.

 

This is just one of many sold on e-Bay.

 

Yup that's whats happened snapped that inner steering gear arm. The steering rack is totaled. Crazy stuff there never seen that before on a car with out some real good external trauma.

But the MOT identified it as an issue so maybe they saw alot of slop right there and it finally gave up the ghost. You must have felt it in the steering wheel?

I know if I failed a state inspection for a steering issue I would have been under there the next day looking at it up on a rack. That can kill you at 70 miles an hour. Your really lucky.

 

That's still the ball-joint end of the inner tie rod showing. You can see it in the ebay image in #15, and also in this Toyota drawing for a Gen 2 (back when they still would sell you the inner rod).



So it really is the inner tie rod itself that snapped clean off.

I think I'm a little unclear on what happened last October. They told you they couldn't get an inner rod separately, right? That they would have to replace the whole rack?

Then, did they replace the whole rack? Did they buy it from Toyota? Did you keep the old one, or see it?

This seems very odd to me.

 

I don’t think you have a full understanding how the steering rack and tie rod assembly are related. Your picture shows that the tie rod broke off cleanly at the ball socket which is still behind that large nut that is still threaded on to the end of the rack. If you remove that nut you will find that the ball end of the tie rod is still in the socket. A new tie rod will simply thread onto the end of the rack.

 

Bzap you may be right maybe the gear box didn't take a beating. Worth a shot the rack is very expensive and a pain to install. Big labor.

I found the part on Olathe $133. + shipping. Probably twice that in Merry Old England.


https://parts.olathetoyota.com/oem-parts/toyota-inner-tie-rod-4550347030?c=bD0xJm49U2VhcmNoIFJlc3VsdHMmYT10b3lvdGEmbz1wcml1cyZ5PTIwMDkmdD1iYXNlJmU9MS01bC1sNC1lbGVjdHJpYy1nYXM%3D