Had a minor bang before into a kurb, now the car badly pulls to the left. Looking quickly tonight as its dark and it looks like i have bent the track rod arm. How easy is it to replace it, as its covered with the rubber gator so i cant see how it would come off till its light.

Many thanks

Pretty easy to do, although the track rod end does have a bend at the end anyway, so compare both sides before changing it. Getting the car tracked might just sort the problem out....

Pretty easy to do, although the track rod end does have a bend at the end anyway, so compare both sides before changing it. Getting the car tracked might just sort the problem out....

thanks for the reply, is it bolts or allen keyed on. I dont have decent allen keys lol!

Track rod screws into the rack, quite a tight gap and hard to get a spanner to. You'll really need a ramp for it. Was a struggle tightening up when I did mine on a pit. Would be easier getting the rod and getting a garage to do it m8

I agree with raf, it's quite tricky to change a tie rod (track rod), I ended up chopping up a 32mm spanner and welding it together at a right angle so I could change a tie rod on a mk4 golf because the access is so limited.. The other option would be to find a 32mm crows foot wrench and see if you can undo it like that with a ratchet. Another method I've seen used is a long tube with a nut welded on one end to turn with a spanner and a pair of threads tapped at the other end with bolts in which clamp on the flats on the inner ball joint on the tie rod.

So all in all for the amount of sheer ball ache involved you may as well get a garage to do it seeing as you will need the tracking adjusted by a garage afterwards anyway.

It's also worth chucking a track rod end on there at the same time too tbh, and besides you often muller the thread or round off the hex slot in the stud getting them off anyway.. Although in theory you could take the rod off and leave the end still attached to the hub/upright, youd just have to turn the rod about 20 revolutions to release it from the end.

Sorry - I was thinking about the track rod end..... not the track rod itself.

Tbh it's unclear what the op is asking anyway.. Yu could interpret the title as 'track control arm' too which again is something totally different. But I guessed it wa the tie rod due to the mention of the rubber gaiter.

I did the same thing a few weeks ago. The trackrod itself is supposed to be straight, but mine had a proper bend in it. I could tell it was fubared, becuase if put the steering wheel straight, the good side was parallel to the body, but the side with the damaged arm was at a crazy angle.

I ended up taking my subframe off to do mine, as i wanted to replace FARB anyway.

Then ended up replacing steering rack anyway for a R32 one as well.

Sorry - I was thinking about the track rod end..... not the track rod itself.

The track rod ends are ment to have a bend in them. Doubt you could bend one as they are solid cast metal. The rod it's self is a lot weaker and is more liable to bend.