I have been trying to get my car aligned for the past year. First they said there was wheel play because of the ball joints. I replaced them. then the outer tie rods were said to be bad. I replaced them. Bad tires bla bla bla. Well now they say its the Inner tie rod. so I went to auto zone to buy them, they said my car must not have any. what gives? also does the radius rods bushings ever cause wheel play?

Thanks

RYan

Worn radius arm bushings(Cone Bushings) can cause wheel play. Have someone drive your car slowly on level ground, and stop quicly next to you. If you see the wheel move abruptly rearward, you probably need to replace the cone bushings. If you fail the first test, raise the car on jack stands and pull the front wheel(s) and inspect the bushings as you push stoutly fore and aft. One side on my car was real bad and the other less obvious.

I changed mine last week with poly bushings from IPD. At the same time I changed the bushings and links which connect the control arms to the sway bar. Whole job took 3 1/2 to 4 hours including a trip to the auto parts store to buy an E-18 Torx socket to get the radius rod off.

Good luck

This term is used all the time on the boards and I have no idea why. The tie rod end is the little black thing with the joint. We all know that and that little thing is not a rod. It screws onto the tie rod which joins the rack at another wear prone joint. Just plain tie rod. Easy to tell if they are worn and easy to change, those tie rods.

700 tie rods with male thread that screws into the female thread of the rack are different from 240 tie rods that do the same. Different thread. I learned that the hard way.