inner tie rod replacement

[nofeeling]

Need some advice regarding inner tie rod replacement .Would this be suitable ,http://www.amazon.co.uk/BERGEN-Professi ... e+rod+tool

It has a similar spec to a Laser 3829 but is a lot cheaper .
Anyone used this kind of tool or better still is it possible to get access with a spanner or mole grips ?
Thanks

And how do I determine which steering rack is fitted ,the motor factors stock 2 tie rods ,one for each make TRW or SMI-KOYO .

[RUM4MO]

I've done this job, maybe look for my posting on seatcupra.net or briskoda.net - I've looked on this forum and I have not logged anything about it in uk-polo.net.

How to tell if you have simi koyo or trw - I'd reckon that all Polos and Ibizas only use TRW, early Fabia used Simi-Koyo. Remove your power steering fluid cap - if it has vertical "grip" bits and has TRW written somewhere on it, then your system will all be TRW.

Now, buying tools, I looked at the Laser tools, baulked at the price and bought one of these Bergen tools - it worked okay, but, I grabbed the chance to buy rods complete with ends from ECP on a special discount weekend and saved quite a bit. Armed with these new rod assembly, I measured the diameter of the point that these tools grip on and ordered in a tool. So far so good, a few weeks later I set about replacing both rod assemblies, immediate "job stop" as diameter of the TRW original rods at the point where the tools fits is bigger than the new ECP supplied rod assemblies. I needed to order in the next tool size up. After that it was plain sailing except that I bought new boot clips from VW - buying the big end ones was a good idea, don't buy the small end ones as these new rods are bigger at that point than the original, so old and new small clips don't fit - just use two cable tie wraps at that end, I used two per side. You will need to move the steering wheel one way or the other so that you can get the tools to fit properly. I don't think that the bigger tool would work for the new ECP rods. Still cheaper than buying VAG parts and using only one tool size though! Doing this kept the MOT guy happy.

Edit:- the ECP parts made by Lemforder a ZF company, so okay, are 32mm, so I ended up buying a tool to suit that size, the one you list will suit the original steering rod knuckle only I think.

[nofeeling]

Thanks for your detailed reply . I think I read that thread you mentioned .At the minute I have that Laser tool ,got it for £27 delivered so not too bad .Last years MOT had 4 advisories ,one being o/s tie rod but none were rectified ,but this time no advisories just a o/s ball joint failure which I have done .Can`t understand why it got no advisories though .
Local motor factor only stock 1 tie rod , said they have never been asked for the other make tie rod ,which supports what you said about TRW racks .
Can cable ties not be used for the big end ? I take it the rubber boot is ok to reuse with the new tie rod ?
Think a trip to motor factors is needed to compare the Laser tool with their tie rod .
Thanks again .

[RUM4MO]

I don't think that you can work out how/when advisories are actually applied. Once I had an advisory on a 8 year old Passat V6 for a cracked but not split front CV gaitor, I ignored that and car passed okay next year, the year after that I needed to replace the front springs and discovered that the MOT guy had been right - same place/guy did the next MOT?!?

Anyway, back to your problem, I could feel and heard a knock when "manipulating" the O/S front wheel, after changing that track rod, the knock was still there but a lot less, and, the swivel joint on that rack rod was quite free to move when removed from the car. I've now looked at what you were looking at in your first posting and that is not exactly what I bought, I bought the one with the long tube on the end, first one fitted the ZF Lemforder part and was a "28mm>35mm" one but that did not fit the original VAG track rod, so that was why I bought the next size "35mm>45mm". Now it could be that what you have bought, having a bigger size range, might just be okay.

Using tie wrap for big end of gaitor/bellows, might do but I was wanting to do it right as original, while making sure that if I trashed the original claps taking them off I had a new clip to fit. Access to these big end clips is not too good so I was prepared to wreck them to save time, in the event I think that they came off intact!

The bellows were reused as they were intact and the small end opened up enough to take the bigger diameter trackrod.

Buying these trackrods complete with new rod ends is cheaper than buying the two parts.

[RUM4MO]

Any feedback on how you got on this job, even if only to add anything to what has been written already to help others?

[RUM4MO]

Any feedback on how you got on this job, even if only to add anything to what has been written already to help others?

BUMP!!

[nofeeling]

Sorry ,nothing to report yet as the car has been rarely used for the last month or so apart from this week which has given a new fault ,N75 most likely .I will let you know when it gets done .

[nofeeling]

After a long time its finally been replaced ,along with other parts . The tool I purchased worked a treat .I think the car had original tie rods judging by the boot clamps .Managed to reuse the boot and fit cable ties to secure .
Tie rod was an Ocap from ECP and indeed it is a TRW . Ended up cutting the old rod as the nut was seized .Perhaps one of those long socket type tools would be better in this case .
Access wasn,t too bad as the subframe mount was removed due to replacement .
All in all not a bad job .Even though the last 2 MOTs didn,t advise this rod ,it did have play in it .
Retest tomorrow then best get alignment checked .

Thanks for the info earlier in the year .

[RUM4MO]

Good to hear you sorted it okay. Have you gone for a full four wheel re-alignment as you should have if you dropped the subframe.