sgt rock

last week i was heading to work when i heard some noise up front. it would come and go....as i pulled into my work my jk was going one way as i steered the other way.

i looked underneath and noticed the driver side tie rod bolt was not on. i used a shoe lace to hold it in till i could park. i was kind of tee'd off as i had thoughts of my jk veering off the freeway or if i had been off-roading.

i also am wondering why my sam, pinzgauer and 05 jeep all have a crown bolt with a cotter pin that would prevent this....but after looking at a few jk's they are not set up like this.....

anyhoot just a fyi to you guys and gals as this is going to be a 800 bucko repair. and yes the warranty will not cover it as i have a lift and other mods. i was told most of the parts will take a few months to get in but she is drivable and i am heading to moab to give my jk to burnsville for a 5.7 hemi- hope i make it!

i was thinking of finding a crown bolt and drilling a hole to put put a cotter pin in....

the rockster

Renegade

$800??? That Sucks! What else did it mess up?

Robar

Is the dealer saying that the lift put enough stress on the tie rod to make the nut come off or did the bolt break?

sgt rock

why so much...800 bucks will cover parts that the rod damaged on the inside...heading to the dealer right now to get the parts that were damaged.

dealer said that since i had a lift and other things done warranty was nill.

i informed them that the bumper, terra flex lift or gears would not warrant the tie rod to come off.

but a good thing happen....a couple was turning in a sport 2005 wrangler and was given a low price on a trade in...i said i would buy it for the same amount...i did buy the sport and was happy to have gotten it for 13k...sales guy was pissed (oh well).....

the rockster

Renegade

I guess I will be safetywiring mine to prevent this from happening. I still think $800 is way too much for anything but bodywork.

Woods

This is a little scary. I was under the impression modifications will only effect warranty if a problem is directly linked to the modification. I do not see how a nut falling off of a bolt could be directly linked to the modification. This just encourages people to remove a mod, prior to taking their vehicle to a dealer for warranty work.

I was looking for my next mod on my JK. Woohoo, I’ll be drilling the bolt and installing castle nuts and clevis pins, this weekend.

Anybody care to chime in about other bolts that need this treatment?

08 rubi

the 800 dollars is probely not for the bolt but the $60-$80+ per hour for labor. the fact that the tie rod did not have a castel nut is not that rare sevral makes use lock nuts instead of the castel and coter pin. also I would not recomend drilling a hole in the threded part of the tie rod because then any chance of a warrenty fix is gone. and this will weaken the tie rod.

Renegade

Drilling the threads should not weaken the rod end, as long as it's done right. Race cars and motorcycles of all types use drilled bolts/nuts and safetywire to prevent them from loosening. It wouldn't be done if it weakened the parts.

joedude

I agree with that... I work in aviation... and pretty much everything slightly important is either castle nut with clevis pin, or lock wired... but like 08 rubi said... whatever they can do to get out of a warranty fix...

BLKRUBI

So it seems to me that the dealer just doesn't want to fool with warrany work because they get paid a lower labor rate for it. If you ask me, the dealer that you took it to sucks and they are wrong. If I were you, I would try another dealership because they can say that the lift voids your tie rod end warranty, but in truth, unless they can prove it that it caused the failure, they are incorrect. Like I said, either the dealer doesn't want to work on it or are just ignorant. DC will never know one way or the other that the replacement part was off of a modified vehicle so even if the warranty would be voided, the dealership, for the sake of good customer service, could repair your vehicle (if they really wanted to) to keep you happy. I work at a dealership, in parts and service (not DC), but we have DC and most manufactures work roughly the same way.