Inner Tie Rod

[soccerfan]

Took my 99 Solara for an alignment this am.

I know the struts are weak and should be replaced, but kids in college and this is my commuter car. I am trying to resolve a thump issue, and I rotated my tires myself this weekend, and noticed that the drivers side tread (now on the front) was worn on the outside.

I thought an alignment would help smooth out the ride, and if I'm wearing tires I'd like to nip that in the bud.

Evidently things are slow at the shop...an hour after I took it in, they called and have a "quote " for me to replace all four struts and strut mounts, and replace an inner tie rod......all for a mere $1,989. I laughed and told them I was not replacing the struts and what would the tie rod cost by itself, and what about the alignment. Guy told me the tie rod was $510 installed and it would not hold an alignment without that and he would not do it. We finished our business and they wanted me to pay a $42.50 diagnostic fee, which I did because I did not want to ruin my day by fighting about $40, and I thought maybe they did me a favor by doing all the diagnostics for me.

AFter thinking about it a bit, my question is - Is an inner tie rod an wear part? I've heard many times about replacing the ends.

I searched on here, and it is addressed a couple of times. Can someone with knowledge on this topic inform me about this? How hard is this as a DIY? I'm fairly proficient, but don't wnat to start something better left to a professional shop.

I guess I would have rather the offered to do the alignment and told me it would probably not help, rather than just turn my $65 alighment into their whole weeks revenue stream.

Your thoughts?

[TadS]

Wow, that's pretty high for an inner. I mean we'd probably be at around 300 with the alignment, and we do the diagnostic for free. I would probably make some calls to some other shops. He's right that you can't align a car with loose front end parts.

On doing it yourself. You can. It's not really, really hard, but it's much harder than doing the outer. A Moog inner will run you about $60 and there's a tool you'll need, which most part stores will rent / loan you.

[soccerfan]

Update.

Decided to bring in a second opinion. Took it this time to a shop I sometimes use that specializes is Toyota and Lexus.

Left it there, guy called back later and said not one but two bad inner tie rods. Two inner rods were $292, labor was $360, alignment $95, tax and misc bring the total to $809.

Shop indicates that one tire has a lump in it that is causing the vibration I've been chasing. Discount Tire has assured me more than once that there is no fault on the tire, blamed it on alignment/suspension problems. Back to Discount this weekend, will let you know how that turns out.

Seems like my mothers Avalon had a steering rack problem a couple of years ago, so maybe this is a Toyota issue?