Thread: Tie rod ends

A lot of good reason behind no grease fittings. 90% of new car's today don't have them. You get a lot of people that will just pump the boot's up intill they tear when that happens it really kill's the life of the tie rod, ball joint inless your wanting to crawl under your car every couple of week's to flush them with more grease to push all the dirt and road grim out of them from the tore boot. It's pretty common to see a non serviceable item like your talking about go 100,00 miles with out any issues.

That sounds logical but after 5 decades and ownership of many cars including a 78 Camaro I rebuilt, replaced several trans, got dozens of tickets in and drove through hell and high water I would have to disagree with you on this. That maybe what GM claims to remove responsibility for a bad decision.

I have never been good at keeping a perfect maintenance schedule. But I did change my oil regularly and I would hit the grease fittings maybe once a year or maybe not that often. I did open the boots at times by putting too much grease in when I did but after many years and many cars I never ever had to replace anything in my chasis other than shocks. Never had a tie rod end to go bad.

It appears the thick grease wears down in the working area and/or squeezes out but remains thick and held in place by the boot good enough to keep sludge out of the joint and an occasional squirt to the fittings does just fine. Without a grease fitting it's only a matter of time(67k in my case) before they(both) are worn out and wobbling like a duck.

A Poor decision by GM

They did it as a means to keep shady "techs" from causing problems, and/or lack of maintenance causing the problem. If the new ones fail, they fail. Its a mechanical fail, not somebody that didn't know what they were doing or someones negligence to the vehicle. They are meant for 100k+ so usually they don't. I work parts in a GM dealership, rarely do I see the new tie rods come in messed up under 100k, if at all... the older ones with grease valves, those we replace often (then again, the are in older vehicles with higher mileage). Its a toss up, like anything mechanical, it will break eventually regardless.

People today simply don't have the time, or take it to make sure the car that gets them back and forth is properly maintained. In reality too often most people don't even know anything about a vehicle but the radio, seat adjustments and how to work the pedals and wheel. They go to "grease and go" because they get the oil changed in 10 mins or its free crap and that give them more time to sip the latte at the starbucks. But what happens when the vehicle breaks down, WAAHHHH!!! woe is me!!!

With out a doubt going to agree with TLSheff on this one, after myself being a gm diesel tech for a number of years he's pretty much nailed this topic on the head and has explained it better then I would of.

FYI I have 154k on my stock tierods. No play at all.

Thanks for your replies guys.

I used to always change my oil. But with the grandPrix I've alway took it somewhere. Getting lazy in my age.

These oil change places always grease my car and check everything.


I noticed the Kendal synthetic blend used by Firestone makes my valves tick while cold. It appears my 3.8 GP don't like synthetic blends.

Originally Posted by GrandPrixChris

I replaced RH tie rod on my '91 at 160k miles and both on my '98 at 189k miles, but I consider myself lucky that they lasted that long because this state is so pot hole ridden in the cities. The '05 and '06 are still solid so far.

You must be a huge fan of Granprix to own 4 so far??

What will you do now that Pontiac is gone?

190K on non greaseable tie rod ends, sway bar links, and ball joints. just now replacing them. must not have been that bad of a decision.......

It was a bad decision with my GP.

Tie rod ends replacement is a breeze tho
Changed brake pads and tie rod ends in just a few minutes..