[s-cars] Tie Rods and IR Key again

[Tom Mullane]

Greg,

First of all, whatever route you go, the car will need an alignment.
Period.

I doubt that you need to replace the entire tie rod assemblies.  You should
be able to replace just the ends and maybe the double threaded adjusters.
On my car, I unbolted the assembly from the rack and detached both tie rod
ends from the struts.  I pulled the whole assembly out through the wheel
well, disassembled it, lubed it up with anti-seize, and put it all back.  I
do this on all my cars (gotta love livin' in New England) before I take them
in for alignment.  The alignment shop knows how ana...er, fastidious I am,
and they dial the alignment is as close to perfect as they can.  If you can
get the tie rods apart, you don't need to replace them unless the bushings
where they attach to the bracket at the rack are worn.  Even if you go with
new complete tie rods, I recommend disassembly and anit-seize before you
install them.

BTW, I use anti-seize on all my lug bolts too <ducks>.

Tom



Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 09:40:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: Gregory Wolters <gjwarch at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: [s-cars] Tie Rods and IR Key again
To: S-CAR-List <S-CAR-List at audifans.com>
Message-ID: <20041028164018.75653.qmail at web80004.mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hi All,

I posted this a while back and didn't receive any
response.  If anyone out there can help with either
issue, I'd sure appreciate it.  TIA.

Car is 94 S4 with 135K miles or so.  Weather got cold
and tie rods, originals as far as I know, are worn out
and squeeking.  Last time I had a 4 wheel alignment
the guy was not able to break the adjusting nut
free... my car is aligned, but my steering wheel
isn't.

What are the pros and cons of replacing the tie rod
end (at $15 per side) only versus replacing the entire
thing (at $130 per side)?  My feeling is that at my
car's milage I probably should replace the whole
thing.  There's just such a difference in price.

Can I do the job myself?  If I measure and adjust new
rods carefully to match old will I still require an
alignment?

Other issue is my IR key.  It doesn't work. 
Everything works great if I use the key manually in
the hole.  I've tried all the stuff in the manual and
on the list but it seems my problem is different. 
Checked key output with camcorder and it is
flashing... the batteries are relatively new.  When I
do the reprogram thing in the owner's manual, the car
beeps at me when I enter the code as it should, which
seems to indicate that the key and car are talking. 
I'm at a loss.  Perhaps I just have a broken key.  Has
this happened to anyone else?

Greg
94 S4
Nevada City, CA