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Hopefully you'll get some useful replies from those who have had such work done. My 2006 Azera Limited bot-new has held up well for 116k miles and I'm trying to make it last to or even past the 20-year mark w/o major engine or xmission work. COULD happen, and if so, it'll be the first. Had a bot-new 1977 Honda Accord that gave me 19 years and 328k miles before the wiring harness totally gave up, but using cheap oil in Italy cost me an engine around 228k miles. I do no work on the cars myself, take them to the dealer.

Originally Posted by Gamle-ged

That is a scary amount of work!...

replacing tie rods on an '06 azera is violently straightforward--i can't believe it's any more difficult on succeeding years. trust me, exponentially more difficult part replacement jobs lurk within our azera's front ends.

one hidden cost associated with replacing tie rods: getting an alignment post-installation.

well not really, if you have nothing better to do on the weekends and a decent quota of refreshing beverages. You good to go lol. I did the rear motor mount on a my buddies 06 azera without messing with the sub frame or lifting the engine. That was a bit more work. But to be honest these cars are not bad to work on. For a transverse mounted 3.8 V6, there is room to work. For comparison my 3000gt vr4 that I am rebuilding engine for. I had to remove the master cylinder to drop the engine back in. Once the engine was in, took me about 2 hrs to get the master cylinder back in. Ridiculous, thats just the master, you can imagine how long everything else takes.

That is a scary amount of work!...

Here are the rest of the pics:
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Tie Rod Replacement (Inner and Outer both side)

Hi guys replaced the inner and outer tie rods on my cars. Refer to New Introduction for details on my car. FR was frozen and couldn't be aligned. Checked wheel on jacks and there play. Inners were shot. So 2 problems
1, Couldn't be aligned because of frozen outer tie rod (FR)
2, FR wheel had play

Symptoms were poor handling, numb steering, cars move all over the road like a shopping cart. Now I don't know whether the tie rods are the only reason for the poor handling or not. Either-way the inner on the FR had to be changed, so I decided to do complete set for both wheels to get a base line.

Tools
17 MM wrench flat or Offset (ideal)
25 MM wrench for tie rod adjustment nut and tie rod its self
19 MM for new tie rod nut.
Ball joint fork
Screw Driver for inner boot (flat)
Hammer
PB Blaster or Free All (my Favorite)
Inner tie rod removal tool set (Item#69619) - Really good tool (half inch). I think size is 33.5 mm or something
Map Gas or Torch (only if frozen)

Parts
Outer Tie Rods - Moog
Inner Tie rods - Beck arnley
Worm-Drive Hose Clamp (OE clamp point of failure)

I used 2 bottles of Map gas but the FR outer tie rod was frozen and wouldn't budge. So I decided to cut it. Cutting the outer tie rod is a last resort, because god forbid the inner is frozen, you would have remove the rack.
Once I cut the tie rod, the special tool worked just fine. Thats when I found the point of failure which happen to be the clamp on the inner boot. The boot was in good condition, but water and dirt had leaked into boot. The factory clamp, is the one time use deal, that cant be tightened. So they probably got loose over time. It doesn't help with the fact that the rack doesn't have a decent lip for the boot to slip onto. I used the worm-drive clamp and tightened the heck out of it.

The LF wasn't frozen and took about 20 mins to replace. Eye balled the alignment lol (Fun to do with a cut tie rod) and hit the road. It will definitely need a alignment, but the steering does feel way better. More feel and 2 fingers is all you need to make an adjustment. Once I get the alignment will update. Next job would be VCG's and tune up.

Sorry still cant upload Pics, don't freaking know why.
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