Does your vehicle need a tie rod replaced? Before you sign that repair order at the garage, educate yourself a little bit on your car's front end. There are ways to save money in auto parts and repair - and the garage doesn't want you to know that! What does a tie rod replacement cost? That depends on the vehicle, but I do know that there are ways to reduce that cost if you do a little research beforehand.

First of all, a tie rod has an inner and outer end (you may have been told you only need an inner or outer). This rod transmits force from the steering gear to the steering knuckle, which is what turns your wheel. Bumpy roads and potholes are a tie rod's nemesis - hard wear and tear will cause these parts to become loose, or have play. When this happens, your steering system isn't working as it was designed to. You may feel some looseness when you're steering the car. A big indicator of a tie rod issue would be uneven tire wear. Worn tie rods will cause the alignment of the vehicle to fall out of specification, and can cause your tires to wear faster on one side than the other. Now you not only have the tie rod problem, but are also looking at tire replacement as well!

This is why it is so important to have your vehicle checked out regularly. Find a reputable garage that will check all your front end components. You can monitor tire wear yourself by taking a good look at your tires every couple of weeks. Are the outside edges wearing at the same rate as the inside edges? If not, get your vehicle to the shop to be checked. The downfall is that in most cases, a wear pattern will continue on a tire even after you correct the alignment problem, but it is still important to catch this kind of wear early.

If you're a "do it yourself" kind of person, make sure that you have your vehicle properly aligned after replacing a tie rod. If you don't, you are doing yourself a severe injustice and will probably end up costing yourself more money than you saved on labor! When you remove and install a tie rod, you absolutely need to have the car's alignment set back within manufacturer specifications, or you will end up with abnormal tire wear like I described above.

One last warning about having your car serviced - many times you can find the part you need for less money than the garage is selling it. Any garage will charge you markup on the part that they had to find from someone. If you're able to find your own part first, you don't have to worry about the service garage charging you double what they paid for the same part!