My 1996 850 turbo wagon has 135K miles. My tire shop tells me I have a cracked driver side, front, inner tie rod. While I'm having that replaced, is there any other maintenance I should have done, given the age/mileage of the car? If it's just the tie rod, could I do this myself?

Thanks for any replies,
CM

I had a tire/alignment shop tell me one of my inner tie rods was bad as well. They refused to align the car and charged me $20 plus tax to look at my tie rod.

I haven't jacked the thing up and crawled under it yet to confirm.

If it's not an easy DIY job, I wonder why a tire shop offered to fix my inner tie rod for $120 parts and labor, that seems pretty reasonable to me. I wonder if they were just going to put a new boot on?

Maybe Klaus is right on this one.

Maybe they meant the boot for inner tie rod is cracked? Tie rods are pretty dam sturdy, they will over time develop play in the inner and outer ball joints, but I can't see any part of them cracking. Does it drive straight, or close to straight?

Could be they are fishing for business??? Get a second opinion from a good shop that also does alignments. It is not a fun, easy DIY job.

Klaus
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Proud owner of a 220S. If I had more room, I would have more Volvos.

Thanks for the replies.
Yes, it drives fine, no noises, steering pull, etc. I too suspect they were just looking for business (BTW, they quoted me $375). I guess I'll have to take it to my mechanic (whom I trust) and have them take a look.

IMHO, that's an excessive charge for replacing a tie rod. Even if the rod has some play, there is often no need to replace until you need an alignment.

I called the tire shop back and asked them "I'm taking the car to my mechanic, what, exactly was the problem you found?" and they changed their story from "it's cracked" to, "it has some play in it."

Thanks again for all your responses!

I jacked up mine and checked it yesterday. Yes it had some play.

Be advised, aftermarket inner tie rod ends are $17 and OEM are $42 at FCPGroton.

Anyone done this job and have advice? Looks like I'll be doing it soon. I ordered two of them and might do both sides at the same time, since I'll need an alignment when I'm done anyway.