Hello,

I intend to replace my track rod ends (due to an ongoing tracking issue). Both my farther and me have done other jobs before but never the track rod ends. Does anyone have any recommendations regarding the work. I've read over the haynes manual but was wondering if there is anything we should look out for?

Thanks.

Paul.

Assume crimping has not worked?

Sorry but whats "crimping"?

Not entirely sure. Too much play and poor handling in mine two years ago resulted in a choice of crimping, but if that didn't work, I needed new. A labour intensive job £££ by all accounts.

Never heard of it. It's been tracked etc and had the bushes replaced but I still get vibration through the wheel and it's pulling to the right. Once I've replaced them I intend to take it to Awesome GTI (as their only over the road from where I work) to have them track it fully.

Edited 18 September, 201213 yr by wilsonian

Sorry but whats "crimping"?

I think that someone is getting confused with an old hairdressing term - or maybe a current hairdressing term.

Only thing I can suggest you do is to prepare to get a bit frustrated when trying to remove the parts, I've only ever done this job on one VAG car and it was a lot harder than any other Ford or VX car I had worked on in the past, yes lots of rather nasty mushy metal and gone hard as hell nyloc inserts - nasty, nasty, nasty!

Well we finally got them replaced on saturday. Few points to anyone wanting to do this - spray the bolts and nuts with penatrating lube and have a brew. Clean the threads with a stiff wire bruss - I know this sounds obvious but it helps alot.

As mentioned in the above post - the myloc nuts are a swine to remove but can be done. However be careful holding the track rod - we ended up using a Molex Grib against the wishbone as the spanner was starting to round the edges.

Also when you finally get the old track end off run the nut up and down the tread to make sure no grit or dirty is in the way (a long socket - think a 21mm - will do the trick).

Once completed we covered the whole area in wax oil to avoid any more rust from building up.

I'd also suggest having a "helper" it could be a one man job but you may struggle.

Yes, I covered all the threaded areas in grease initially, but 6 years on I've taken to scrubbing all the threaded bits with a wire brush and painting with satin black hammerite - along with cleaned drive shafts and TCAs etc - and the rear beam along with any sections of road springs that have cracked paint.

The web page below might be useful:

http://pmmonline.co.uk/technical/track-rod-and-knuckle-joint-removal-skoda-fabia-2003

I'm looking to do the job this weekend, but there are some specialist tools shown.

Anybody tried this with basic toolbox - spanners, sockets etc..?

Yep it's possible, I have done a few, when you manage to slack off the (a bit of heat may be required) locknut, only back it off a quarter turn, then compare the replacement unit, if the new unit is identical in measurement, you can screw it up to the locknut, less the quarter of a turn, and hopefully your tracking should be the same as when you started.

DB.

We messured the distance between the gaiter to the bolt on the track rod end. The job went well - just dealt with some rusted/dirty parts.

I'd recommend a few things:

Ball Joint removal tool - like this one LINK and some extended sockets. Other than that it's just your usual tool kit.

I went all hulk on the old track rod end when changing mine, the thing seized on! After a Cig and a cuppa i gave it another go and sheared clean through the old bolt, fell over whilst hearing a clunk, got back up in panic, realised what had happened then raised my fists up declaring "I AM AWESOME!!"

We messured the distance between the gaiter to the bolt on the track rod end. The job went well - just dealt with some rusted/dirty parts.

I'd recommend a few things:

Ball Joint removal tool - like this one LINK and some extended sockets. Other than that it's just your usual tool kit.

 

Just in case anyone else reads this and decides they want to attempt to change the track rod on a Fabia.. specfically a MK1 vRS, it's worth taking a look at the pictures below.

 

I needed to replace the track rod, and track rod end on the passenger side. There is very little clearance to get in and remove the metal tie on the original gater ( inside, closest to steering rack ), when entering via wheel arch. It's also very difficult to get purchase when crimping the replacement metal tie that you get with most track rod kits. I used the following tool for the CVJ metal clip: http://www.ccw-tools.com/product.asp?strPageHistory=search&numSearchStartRecord=1&strParents=0%2C0&CAT_ID=&P_ID=3690

 

I had to hacksaw the old clip off.

 

I recommend that you enter through the bonnet. You'll need to remove:

Engine Cover,

Battery,

Maf Sensor wiring loom connector,

Air box lid,

Air box to inlet manifold air feed pipe ( has two large metal clips that require a decent pair of pliers of suitable clamp tool.. a cheaper version of this: http://www.ccw-tools.com/product.asp?strParents=0&CAT_ID=&P_ID=21871 )

Air box to front of bonnet air feed ( small screw and it'll pop off with a bit of a wiggle )

 

Once you've got everything out of the way, a ladder is useful to get into the engine bay ( I had the car jacked up ).

 

I had to cut my track rod with an angle grinder to get the track rod end off.. it was jammed up tight. I also used one of those track rod tools as mentioned previously in this thread... well worth buying.

 

I think that I used screwdriver(s) to partially open up that crimped point, when you twist that area using a long screwdriver fed in from the wheel arch end, one of two things can happen, you open up the crimped point fully or you open up the crimped point a bit and dislodge the tang on the clip - either way the clip opens up.

 

WRT the tool for removing the track rod itself, I bought new rods from ECP, then bought the right size of tool (cheaper than Laser Tools one) to fit the new rod, unfortunately, when I went to do the job, I quickly discovered that the original rod needed the bigger size!! Unfortunate, but still cheaper than buying the rod assembly from VAG!!  I replaced both sides as I normally think that if one is slack then the other will be soon - in my case this was not true - but did both sides to avoid repeating this job in the future.

Edited 9 March, 201412 yr by rum4mo

 

Copy pasted link in wrong post. Sorry

 

Edited 5 March, 20197 yr by bmbmdmb
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