Technical Have my track rod ends gone?

[quaffle]

So I'm getting a rather irritating 'knocking' and I think it's my tie rod ends. Is there a way I can confirm this before buying a new pair? I can't find any other source of the knock on my Punto after a really good check.

Will the tie rod ends be noticeably wobbly or loose or something if they're the culprit?

 

[fingers99]

You'll be able to feel/see play at the road wheels if you turn the steering wheel.

But what have you done to rule in/out? When does it knock?

 

[oldhammer]

It couid be a ball joint?

you need to check & see

do the old skool pull on wheel hub test,,
and use good old testing bar for ball joint,.

 

[fingers99]

 

[Ziggy122]

Jack car up and rock steering
12 - 6 to check for ball joints on bottom
3 - 9 for TRE

Ziggy

 

[s and b]

i had a knockin on friday it was the strut top
an undo of the 19mm nut and a spin up of the 28mm? nut stopped it
19mm nut and cup replaced
5 minute job
sounded like a horse and cart on setts before this done

 

[PuntoHowTo]

You say track rods in the title but tie rods in the post?

The track rods ends are on the steering rack and likely only to make a noise on steering

The mk2 punto doesn't have 'tie rods' as the roll bar bolts directly to the bottom of the lower arms. The bushes for the roll bar could be gone/going which might account for the noise.

Lower arm bushes also make a racket when worn out. The suspension setup is very simple in these so not much to replace and easy to work on, a set of pry bars will help find loose bushes but it might not find the knock until you've changed things

 

[chaos]

Track rod end, tie rod end, same difference. Depends what country you're in. Similar with driveshafts/halfshafts/propshafts, uprights/knuckles/hubs...

I had a knock very similar when there was a significant amount of suspension movement e.g. when going over the speedbumps by my house. It was the ARB bushes for me.

 

[Ziggy122]

Close enough - but very very easily mistaken

Punto's aren't know AFAIK (see SandB) for Inner Tie rods failing
But Track rod ends like any car - they are prone to failure as they are moving parts

Ziggy

 

[chaos]

Sigh...

An American would call a track rod end a tie rod end, or more specifically an outer tie rod end.

That same American would call a propshaft a driveshaft, and what they would call a halfshaft we would call a driveshaft. They would call an upright/hub a steering knuckle.

Spend enough time with Japanese cars (like I have) and chances are you'll need to use American based forums, so you have to get used to different names for exactly the same part.

In other words, it's entirely possible that the OP is referring to the same part, but just calling it by different names.

 

[quaffle]

You'll be able to feel/see play at the road wheels if you turn the steering wheel.

But what have you done to rule in/out? When does it knock?

When going over bumps or a cobbled street.

It doesn't occur when steering though so I actually think it might be the anti roll bar bushes and not the tie rod ends.

Any further advice?

Sorry for the late response.

 

[chaos]

Stick your head under (safely!) the car and have a look. If the ARB bushes are worn, then IME they'll look past it e.g. splits.

Fortunately, replacements are cheap to buy. Just be very careful when removing the bolts, they're very easy to snap.

 

[atom0007]

have a look at MikeSalts post on knocking noise, and look at the pic of his track rod end rubber seal

 

[flisko]

if when going around 130kmh on highway your steering wheel starts to shake your track rod end is bad- got some free play in it, atleast thats how it was on my car, they said on mot i got 1 bad track rod(right side) end so i replaced only that, went on the highway next day and steering wheel stopped vibrating

also track rod end from mk1 fits mk2 and other other way around

 

[quaffle]

Right guys, I think it's definitely the anti-roll bar bushes.

http://www.shop4parts.co.uk/?name=store&op=Details&ProdID=2447&sku=40922

How many of those will I need?

 

[a1ant]

Hi mate.

Just 2 (one each side) of those outer arb bushes.

There are also 2 inner (different) bushes as well, however its usually the outer ones that suffer the most wear

Alan

 

[quaffle]

Hi mate.

Just 2 (one each side) of those outer arb bushes.

There are also 2 inner (different) bushes as well, however its usually the outer ones that suffer the most wear

Alan

I thought there were 4 in total. 2 inner and 2 outer like you said.

I can't find inner ones anywhere. Can you point me in the right direction?

Thank you my friend.

 

[fingers99]

Try Big Mick (ring or Skype, everything isn't on the site) at eurocarcare.net or FIAT.

Generally the inner ones, as said, don't wear appreciably.

 

[a1ant]

Hi mate,

The reason you cant find the inner bushes anywhere is because they are not available per se, as technically they come complete with a new ARB.

However, they are essentially just a standard D ARB bush, so you can replace just the bush with one from another vehicle that uses the same size or a universal one. IIRC the ARB size is 19mm where the two bushes are, but you may want to measure yours accurately to check for wear and step down a size maybe to 18mm if worn etc.

They are similar to these


Obviously I would recommend confirming that your inner bushes are definitely worn and the cause of your noise, before going to this trouble.

The outer ones gets a lot of abuse and tend to wear long before the inner ones do.

Alan

 

[s and b]

to concur with a1ant
ive never replaced any D type antirollbar inner bushes on any mk 2 /2b punto
we are all of the opinion you are looking in wrong direction
cant remember your whole thread but if shocker top 27mm? nut is not tightened up then these cause terrible noises whenst driving on anything but ultra smooth roads