Aftermarket tie rods

[steveo777]

I dont know if anyone else has had this problem but this past weekend I swapped out my steering rack and ran into many obstacles along the way.

The biggest one however was the "OEM" replacement tie rods by uroparts.At $17 per tie rod assembly, how could I resist what shouldve been a great cheap replacement.

With those tie rods in, the bottom of the outer rod where the ball joint is was scoring into the inside of the wheel. I am on stock 14" bottle caps and you will not have this problem if you have any larger wheels. That hardly makes it an OEM replacement if it wont fit with stock wheels.

Buyer beware.

[///M42 sport]

tie rods tighten all the way?

I just did the same swap this weekend. Got the lemford w/o issues.

[nickmcc92]

I bought lemforders w/o issues too

[mr ilia]

What brand were those tie rods?
I have Kralyn's on the way from Pelican...but I also have 15in rims.

[steveo777]

i ordered uroparts tie rods, i have also read that people have had problems with meyle

the key point is that they wont work on STOCK 14in bottle caps

how can that seriously be considered an OEM replacement?

[F34R]

Been using Meyle for years, and racing on them for over 3 years. No issues.

[steveo777]

Are you using the whole tie rod assembly or just the outer rods?

[F34R]

Whole

[MR 325]

Meyle tierods are good quality and absolutely fit.

I have seen the same issue the OP is having with a cheap replacement ball joint. It's been a while so can't remember if it was URO or Karlyn. I'd stay away from both regardless.

[jeffnhiscars]

As has been said it's quite possible you got poorly made parts. Assuming nothing is bent and that you installed both sides of the rack in the correct subframe mounting holes, I'm wondering if you somehow wound up with e36 tierods which are side specific.

[steveo777]

interesting, i guess thats possible however looking in comparison to genuine oem tie rod ends there is no taper downward where the balljoint is and i believe it is millimeters longer. i don't believe they were side specific. so what aftermarket brands undoubtedly work with bottlecaps?

[///digitalme]

Anything uro has poor fitment!!! Stay away from their products. Had the same thing happened on my old e30.

[Sea Aych]

i ordered uroparts tie rods, i have also read that people have had problems with meyle

the key point is that they wont work on STOCK 14in bottle caps

how can that seriously be considered an OEM replacement?

They don't? how about 14" weaves?


I'm looking for whole "tie rod assemblies" (outer) and just want to know if i'm just as well off using FEBI or MEYLE as opposed to the Lemforder OEM ones..
thanks!

[SkiFree]

Either of those will work fine.