360 Rear Tie Rod - Fail or Wear?

Can you get the rubber boot off?

Prosport sell pattern versions of these for less money.

PS: Have you got the correct track rod end on? It looks like it is the same size as the front (the rears are longer).

 

It strikes me that the failure will be at the inner joint pulling out. I'd expect progressive wear with worsening right/left stability in turns as the toe is affected. Wouldn't it basically caster if the part failed? Its a non-structural element. Sure you'd get some funkiness with the one wheel and rear kick/pull.

$800 USD isn't something I'd be in a rush to fix myself.

 

Hill Engineering to the rescue: Ferrari Parts : 181882 BALL TIE ROD : Ricambi America

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Wrong end!

 

In my experience the drivability of the car will suffer so much from the constant toe change you will want to change them long before they risk total failure.

Inconsistent rear toe or wrong rear toe is about the worst thing that can be done to handling.

On the throttle it should stay toed in but on the brakes it will toe out which will cause some real stability problems especially in a turn.

 

I only ask as they rear looks a lot longer than what you have on there (pic below is an OEM rear). However, performance wise I'm sure they are the same.
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Correct. I think there might be some confusion because early 360's use the same size on all four corners (181882): Ferrari Parts : 181882 BALL TIE ROD : Ricambi America

The later 360's and all F430's use the short version in the front (181882) and a longer one in the rear, (194794) : Ferrari Parts : 194794 BALL TIE ROD : Ricambi America

The actual ball joint and boots are the same in both however.

 

Friends F430 was in at Meridian for service a few months back I was down there checking it over and they reported these too. They had more than I thought was good but they said they were fine and to run them on ! I was a little surprised but they said it was fine.

 

Greg, thanks for the followup. Nicely done BTW! What was the Part # on the boot? Just in case..

 

I agree, for the money it's worth giving it a try. Reason I ask is I think over the next few weeks I'm going to look at the suspension and tidy and rips or tears on the boots preemptively.

Thank you for the heads up on the boots!

 

Used tie rod? Used ball joint? You my friend are nuts. 24 years in the auto field and I would never do that. Never. You got cheap and now your compromising safety. Used hard suspension parts. Ok. But used wearable parts. Stupid. Get those parts out of your car and get some new replacements. Never in my life I see such shoe maker moves. Holy sh*t.

R

 

That was my thought also. If you can't use used parts that are in good condition, then every used car should be scrapped, or something close to that.


BT

 

There's a Pick a Part yard here, with bumper stickers:

"Your car is running on used parts right NOW!"

No idea on this part....

 

No one is saying that used parts are no good and that cars should be scrapped. I'm saying used wearable suspension parts is nuts. Not the hard suspension parts like control arm, knuckle etc. used tie rods and ball joints is a no no.

R

 

New or used suspension parts. My take on this is “it depends”. Suspension parts from a crashed car are a no-no. But good, wear-checked and resealed used items with little wear on them are perfectly fine in my book, if you can accept that longevity will probably be impaired when compared to new items.
New isn’t necessarily better. Many modern parts are cheaply produced and not very good. It is not uncommon for ball joints to be nearly unfinished inside, like a raw product taken off the production line right after the first machining. In the past such items were hard-chromed for rust protection and longevity. I have seen new TRW parts wear out in less than 75.000km versus parts with identical function on old BMWs, Jaguars, even Fiats, and most older US produced cars, that last 300.000km and more. Example where new is worse by default: the Fiat 124 spiders. The only new suspension parts obtainable today are by default out of Russian Lada production. I take 40 year old original Italian items over that any day, used or not.

It looks like the joint that started this topic failed because of water ingress (and perhaps a little lack of lubrication). That's definitely rust on that ball.
If well sealed and grease-packed the used part that now replaced it will probably live longer than the original.

 

That is a great rationale. You keep sticking with that..

R

 

Yup the longer you keep the inner tie rod end with "play" will worsen overtime. It doesn't go away and it reveals issues fast.

My car's pulling to one side is getting worse and worse and when I checked the 9 and 3 (side to side) play of the wheel it was much worse than the last time I checked. Then, I checked ghe inner tie rod play AND it was much worse too.

I'll order the whole tie rod this week. Where did you buy yours? How's it holding up after you installed it? Is ther any special steps that has to be done to do the install? I assume it's just plug and play (well align as well)

Thanks!