Broken tie rod end!

[kridgley at brownscar.com (Kervin Ridgley)]

I was pulling out of my driveway Thursday and my drivers side tie rod end broke.  I was only going about 15 mph, but boy did my car shot to the other side of the road in a hurry.  I had only the slightest warning last week.  I was noticing that my car would change heading (I don't know how else to put it), my I was on or off the gas.  I mean, on gas just a little to the right, off gas, just a little to the left.  I didn't feel any looseness of feel rattles.  It looks as if the metal "collar" holding the "ball" rusted through.  I did just put over 150,000 miles on my car.  I'm just glad it didn't happen during one of my high speed adventures.

I got a crappy replacement one from Advanced Auto.  The stud is just a threaded bolt so it doesn't press in, just the nut holds it on.  The bolt doesn't have a hole drilled in it, so they just put a nylon-lock nut on there.  I measured the total length before I took it apart and put the new on in the same as the old one.  I going to order a German made one on Monday to replace it.