I took my car in last week to get some new tires & wheels and some new front struts. Unfortunatly when they got the car up in the air they found more front end work was necessary. I had to replace all four tie rod ends and the Idler arm and center link. As well as the tires and struts (forget the new wheels for now). All said & done I am now $1800 (approx $1200 US) in the hole but have a much smooter, straighter ride that really hugs corners! If anyone has 160,000+ miles on thier car I suggest getting the front end checked out, you'll be happier if you do....... I found out that if I had to swerve suddenly or attempted to manouver through a tight corner there was a 98% chance that the tie-rods would've popped off!

 

yup, i had the idler arm and center link replaced too. supposedly they go bad all the time but i've never heard of anybody else replacing them till now.

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Dan
1990 3.1L RS
80 Series Flowmaster
It's fast(er than a 3 cyl metro)

 

If it makes you feel better, the center-link and especially the idler arm are "wear items"- meaning that they wear out over time... no matter how the car's driven. The idler arm's the most common, though.

I looked under my car one day, and the front tires looked like a bulldog! The bottoms were bent in, the tops were bent out- sort of like: \\ // Turned out that I had a bent (heh, oops) center link and a worn-out idler arm. With two new front tires and an alignment, it cost me $400. The difference in driving after the repair was awesome.

In fact after the new surge of potholes lately in NJ from the snowplows, I had to replace a front tire and get an alignment last Friday. The car handles so well now that I think my alignment was probably off for a while.

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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
---Think your car could be pic of the week? Visit http://www.f-body.net for details!

[This message has been edited by TomP (edited February 02, 2001).]