should outer tie rod ends get replaced as a pair?

[fenixus]

Just a quickie as it seems after I replaced the driver side outer tie rod end (OEM with OEM) now the passenger side makes noises in parking lot at full turns (before it was coming from driver side)...

I guess I will have to replace it regardless of fact that it is not leaking on passenger side. it makes that jumping metal thud sound when turning wheels fully and e.g. pulling into a lot. noticed it today at wheel fully turned toward left and in reverse (sounded like a "bang!") and was coming distinctly from passenger side (heard it again later when going forward at full left turn).

My leaky driver side outer tie rod end was making same noises in parking lot (coming from driver side) at fully turned wheels before I replaced it.

never mind, just recalled an email from Town and Country Toyota aka toyotapartsoutlet.com about their Independence promo - free ground shipping on orders placed between 1st-4th of July!

Just ordered another tie rod end from them, again with free shipping like the first one haha, I must be really lucky recently

my only worry is about the ball joints, hopefully they are not the source of noise/thuds when cornering in parking lot... Moog curse is still hanging above me LOL!

Happy 4th of July people!

[Mister_Perkins]

I always change the tie rods as a pair. Some people don't though. If your tight on cash or something and the other one is good, you could probably get away with just replacing one of them for now.

[fenixus]

thanks, makes sense. I didn't pay attention to doing th other side before.
I replaced the driver side like a month ago, now ordered the passenger side. hoping this is really the last mechanical thing I need to replace on this car

I hate jumping steering feel and any noises, especially in a parking lot

that is if infamous Moog Ball joints survive at least a full year

[Silent Runner]

It makes some sense intuitavely, to replace tie rod ends in pairs, but if the other boot has not ripped or opened up, I wouldn't necessarly do them both at the same time either. Sometimes though, as your probably already noticing, the more you fix, the more you hear and notice after. Unless you go totally all-out at some point,(and replace every component in your supension) you will begin to notice small sounds of wear on the car that many folks would drive through another 30K miles with. You have "The Ear", for mechanical discord, quite rare actually.... but at some point you are going to have to learn to live with it. Its like being a telepath in a world were most people don't give a hoot about what other people think. It will haunt you, and maybe even drive you crazy unless you are able to control it, and use it for good! Yes! save the Camry's and Solara's from evil and crush the Decepticons!

Ya, getting a little silly, but really for every clunk you fix, you probably will figure out another one to worry about. My car has 288K, km, 179K miles on all original suspension components, so far. I have a room full of parts to go in, but really? All the original stuff is sound, not leaking or ripped. The tires wear evenly, and I'm just going to have to live with the odd bumping or creaking noise that sneaks through my Camry's armour a bit at a time replacing this stuff. I hope you can do the same.

[fenixus]

haha, thank you
quite a few people told me already that I'm good in recognizing sounds/noises ... but can you believe that I actually can't hum any melody or song properly? - it's like I'm retarded partially in one aspect - can't correctly (re)produce any sounds/melody and in return having something else (ear) a tad improved over so called average hehe...

yeah, i'm not going too crazy about all noises and sounds I can hear, with an old car the driver must learn to live with it at some point and I feel fine with it until "hearing" noises goes in pair with feeling them in any way that affect drivability (e.g. slight jumps on steering wheel now when cornering, could be the ball joints too to be honest, but they are quite "young" so I doubt they got bad already) ...

I had all sorts of noise/clunks/squeaks/pinging and such in suspension of this car right after purchase (plus screwed up every component in brake system and half of electrical systems disabled in front end)

located and fixed all and hoping it stays like that for some thousands of miles to go. at this point seems only the cosmetic/body stuff left out and I'm quite lazy in doing anything about those ... maybe some other time ... at least I no longer spend every weekend and most of evening tinkering around/under this car

[pmesfun]

When it comes to steering/suspension it makes sense to replace parts in pairs, ex. ball joints, struts, sway links, tie rod ends etc, as they have about the same amount of wear on them. Hopefully the outer tie rod ends are still good on my car, I'm replacing the inners tomorrow.

[fenixus]

^good luck man. inner ones are quite tough cake to bite ... at least much harder than simple outer ones (unlock, screw out, screw in, lock).

I forgot about the in-pair replacement order on outer tie rod ends ... besides never suspected the other one will start failing so quickly after driver side was replaced (was leaking grease like hell) as it still looks good haha... however it feel loose when twisting it, so it gotta be it.