What brand of tie rod ends?

At 160k, my 2005 Toyota Tacoma needs new tie rod ends ASAP. One side is clunking badly.

Recommend me a brand. My instinct says Moog, but I'm open to suggestions.

I go with Moog or whatever else has a Lifetime Warranty at O'Reilley's. 

I have Moog "Problem Solver" on the Sequoia (and on other cars), which I think are their 'higher end' line (I could be mistaken, though). Anyhow, they've been fine.

In reply to Woody :

How did you discern that it's a tie rod clunk versus control arms or ball joint bushings?

(Note: I haven't looked up Tacoma suspension diagram - those parts may not exist)

OHSCrifle said:

In reply to Woody :

How did you discern that it's a tie rod clunk versus control arms or ball joint bushings?

(Note: I haven't looked up Tacoma suspension diagram - those parts may not exist)

I grabbed the tie rod end with my hand and it made a clunking noise when I shook it.

Well that's just horrific. The Moog Problem Solver tie rod ends are nice as long as you remember to grease them. The one downside to having zerk fittings in the outer tie rods is that water can get in if you don't stay on top of them.

I actually removed the Moog outer tie rods from my 07 FJ Cruiser and replaced them with sealed AC Delco Professional units. Very slightly more expensive but at least I won't forget to grease them.

Woody said:

OHSCrifle said:

In reply to Woody :

How did you discern that it's a tie rod clunk versus control arms or ball joint bushings?

(Note: I haven't looked up Tacoma suspension diagram - those parts may not exist)

I grabbed the tie rod end with my hand and it made a clunking noise when I shook it.

That seems conclusive. 

Moog has worked well for me in the past. 

Here's the talk I have often with customers (I sell auto parts wholesale):

MOOG has their own design of ball joints and tie rods and such.  When they make a part for a particular application they make their design fit the vehicle. They are usually a greaseable design with a metal "gusher bearing".  It's not new technology, but it's a known quantity, very tough, and it's the go-to for a lot of people.  The brand is kind of an anomaly in that they primarily do aftermarket parts (meaning they don't supply OE, generally) and enjoy a reputation for better-than-OE quality and durability.

In most cases the OE (Toyota in this case) doesn't make these parts.  Whoever builds the parts that went on at the Toyota Factory has their own design.  It's likely non-greaseable (no grease zerk) with a plastic bearing.  Is this bad?  It gets most vehicles through a warranty period and they ARE meant to be wear items that are replaced at some point.

Some of the aftermarket parts are going to be built to  exactly match the OE parts in every way.  Some of these may actually come from the OE manufacturer of the parts (though that's often hard to know).

Other aftermarket parts (you'll know them by their price point) are designed to fit and be cheap.  They are for the do-it-yourself owner who needs to pass an inspection today, get to work tomorrow, and who doesn't value their own time.  

On my own stuff I mostly use MOOG and/or AC Delco.  AC Delco actually makes a lot of "all makes and models" parts so you'd be surprised what you might find.  

I would avoid the "do it yourself" level parts unless you're in a pinch.  

In reply to ClemSparks :

Very informative. Thank you Clem. 

I prefer to have to grease a tie rod or ball joint then have one of those "lubed for life" ones. Why? It's because of the prior post. Plastic bearings have no place on a car.

I had been buying OEM replacements for my VW race car and replacing them every 3 races or so due to slop that develops. What is happening is the cornering loads I impart on the ball joint deforms the plastic bearing and I get the play that I can feel in the steering. I finally designed and built my own ball joints using a teflon lined spherical bearing and have been running the same joints for 2 seasons of racing.  

On a slight tangent.  I just got Moog end links with grease fittings, how often should they be greased?

ClemSparks said:

Here's the talk I have often with customers (I sell auto parts wholesale):

MOOG has their own design of ball joints and tie rods and such.  When they make a part for a particular application they make their design fit the vehicle. They are usually a greaseable design with a metal "gusher bearing".  It's not new technology, but it's a known quantity, very tough, and it's the go-to for a lot of people.  The brand is kind of an anomaly in that they primarily do aftermarket parts (meaning they don't supply OE, generally) and enjoy a reputation for better-than-OE quality and durability.

In most cases the OE (Toyota in this case) doesn't make these parts.  Whoever builds the parts that went on at the Toyota Factory has their own design.  It's likely non-greaseable (no grease zerk) with a plastic bearing.  Is this bad?  It gets most vehicles through a warranty period and they ARE meant to be wear items that are replaced at some point.

Some of the aftermarket parts are going to be built to  exactly match the OE parts in every way.  Some of these may actually come from the OE manufacturer of the parts (though that's often hard to know).

Other aftermarket parts (you'll know them by their price point) are designed to fit and be cheap.  They are for the do-it-yourself owner who needs to pass an inspection today, get to work tomorrow, and who doesn't value their own time.  

On my own stuff I mostly use MOOG and/or AC Delco.  AC Delco actually makes a lot of "all makes and models" parts so you'd be surprised what you might find.  

I would avoid the "do it yourself" level parts unless you're in a pinch.  

Moog does make their own OEM parts - its called federal mogul. Moog is just their brand for aftermarket.

I use a needle on my grease gun to grease non zerk equipped suspension parts. 

It depends on how you use your truck. If it's a daily driver on road, then Moog is fine. If you beat it off road, then start looking elsewhere like All Pro Offroad or Total Chaos. 

I used to build some pretty mean Toyota suspension setups. Again, all depends on how you use it. 

Always like showing off what my builds could take. LOL

fidelity101 said:

ClemSparks said:

Here's the talk I have often with customers (I sell auto parts wholesale):

MOOG has their own design of ball joints and tie rods and such.  When they make a part for a particular application they make their design fit the vehicle. They are usually a greaseable design with a metal "gusher bearing".  It's not new technology, but it's a known quantity, very tough, and it's the go-to for a lot of people.  The brand is kind of an anomaly in that they primarily do aftermarket parts (meaning they don't supply OE, generally) and enjoy a reputation for better-than-OE quality and durability.

In most cases the OE (Toyota in this case) doesn't make these parts.  Whoever builds the parts that went on at the Toyota Factory has their own design.  It's likely non-greaseable (no grease zerk) with a plastic bearing.  Is this bad?  It gets most vehicles through a warranty period and they ARE meant to be wear items that are replaced at some point.

Some of the aftermarket parts are going to be built to  exactly match the OE parts in every way.  Some of these may actually come from the OE manufacturer of the parts (though that's often hard to know).

Other aftermarket parts (you'll know them by their price point) are designed to fit and be cheap.  They are for the do-it-yourself owner who needs to pass an inspection today, get to work tomorrow, and who doesn't value their own time.  

On my own stuff I mostly use MOOG and/or AC Delco.  AC Delco actually makes a lot of "all makes and models" parts so you'd be surprised what you might find.  

I would avoid the "do it yourself" level parts unless you're in a pinch.  

Moog does make their own OEM parts - its called federal mogul. Moog is just their brand for aftermarket.

I used to work in a Moog manufacturing facility.  Federal Mogul is the parent company (Champion, Fel-Pro, Standard Motor Products, Wagner, Anco, etc, etc) and they have several brands (all acquired over the years, I assume, from once-private brands).  I'd argue that Fedral-Mogul is not a "brand" so much as a company that owns brands (and, in general, I think they are high quality brands).  

20 years ago the Moog plant I worked at thought it was a big deal (not all in a good way) that they were going to start making chassis components for Hummers.  Until then they had always done "aftermarket only."  I wouldn't be surprised at all to find that has changed in 20 years...and there are exceptions to every rule.  For instance...it's pretty common for manufacturers to re-box competitors' parts when they don't have the product (and lots of other seemingly silly games).  

Also back then there was this new development that was to be called Moog "Precision" and it was going to be a sub-brand of parts that were built more like the OE parts with "Smooth" (Plastic bearing) action and such.  This was to be geared at folks who wanted to replace their parts with something that felt like it operated more like the OE (and was probably an experiment in cost reduction).  Moog doesn't own that brand anymore.  I *think* that Oreilly bought the brand name and I *think* that it's not produced by federal mogul at all anymore...but that's just industry chatter without much backup.

But back then, at least, MOOG was its own brand that designed its own stuff and was almost entirely aftermarket only.  

I promise that I'm not trying to come off as an argumentative know-it-all.  Apparently I'm a bit passionate about this (always helps when it's your living, I guess).  I'm just trying to share some helpful (maybe?) facts and also trying to disclose when I don't know all the facts ;)

And I'd say that the overwhelming majority of my customers (independent repair shops) will use a MOOG suspension component as their first choice with very little concern about quality, durability, come-backs.

If and when customers balk at the price of a repair, they will often fall back to a more OE-style aftermarket part that they also have confidence in.  

I'm not trying to sell anything to anyone here.  This is just my experience working with people who make their living by not dissappointing vehicle owners.  

The original one lasted over a decade, and 150k+ miles... why not  an oem replacement?

As a Toyota tech for 10 years now, IMO go with OEM. I've maybe replaced one on that gen taco. Are you sure you didn't grab the sway bar and it was the bushings clunking around ?

At this point you may have it Fixed,  IF the tie rod was so worn it would Clunk Around you would have stopped driving the car. ANY wear or play will result in the Steering wheel  being Off center and the car wandering in the lane. You may luck out and need sway bar Bushings.

How long are you planing to keep the vehical?