OK so im sure some of you have read about all my dealership problems with Apple Ford in MD, well anyway, after they changed out the upper strut mount and replaced my swaybar (which THEY broke the links to) ive had no more thunk *knock on wood* but today after putting my winter rims and tires back on, i went to my local tire place and had them put on four new all season tires on my stock rims. After talking to the tech for awhile, i went inside and paid, when i came back out my tech says "your inner tie rod is bad, you should get that fixed real soon". After talkin to him some more, and letting him know about my previous adventures at the dealership, he said they may have messed it up while replacing my strut mounts, but he couldnt be sure about that. But heres the thing, im taking it to Bob Bell Ford in Glen Burnie MD, not where i had all my previous work done, because i refuse to ever take my car back to that place. But my questions are:

1. Does anyone know if the tech at Apple Ford could have ruined my tie rod while replacing my upper strut mount? Oris the tie rod somethin thatshould not have even been messed with while replacing the strut mount.(remember they did admit to breaking my sway bar links and thus replaced the sway bar)

2. If that could have been the case, should I have any problem gettin another Ford dealership to replace it?

3. Is a tie rod something that they will cover under warranty if its completely unrelated to the upper strut mount incident.

Also i have not hit anything with that wheel, or had any type of force put on that side to break it. So i dont understand why it would be bad. Any ideas on the would also be greatly appreciated. Thanks again guys.....

Zach

 

I doubt they did anything with the tie rod

 

I doubt it too - but I think it would be covered under warranty unless you have some mods they will blame on it.

 

Zach,

Sorry I don't have any input or your questions but, I have heard nothing but horror stories about that dealership. They must have the worse techs in the state there. If I have to get anything done at a the dealership I go to Bob Davidson near Towson.

I hope everthing works out though.

 

Have to agree with Howermat on this one, I replaced my own strut bearing platesand neither the inner or outer tie rod ends encounter any stress during the swap. Inner tie rod ends on rack & pinion systems usually have quite a long life, unless your car has high miles, I`d get another opinion as to whether or not it`s "bad"