I've spent the afternoon trying to loosen off the nearside track rod end on my 05 FFRR with no success whatsoever. The nut on the ball side of things came of easily enough but the nut on the track arm side refuses to budge. So far I've tried heating it & a catering size tin of WD40 & still it wont move. Am I missing something obvious or is there a trick to getting these off? Every nut or bolt on this car has been tightened by someone who must have been a bear of a man.
Regards...Robert. The reason women's minds are cleaner than a mans mind is that women change their minds more often!
When women say fine a mans in deep doodoo as fine has so many meanings.

Is it a left hand thread?

Mine was a nightmare Robert
I even managed to bend the inner track rod. The garage cut the clip of the gater on the steering rack and unscrewed the lot so they could get it in a vice. It would not come undone so I had inner and outer swooped and refitted with plenty of copperslip. Pity they don't do that at the factory. Be careful warming it up because it can be an MOT failure. If you can do without car for a day or so i would get both out its easier.

Good luck Mine was a blue one!

I have checked & its not a left hand thread. It is still stubbornly refusing to budge, so it'll be off to the local independant garage later this week. I'd just love to get the tosser who tightened the nuts on this car, the suspension has given similar trouble & even the brake caliper bolts wouldn't budge. I've never come across a car that was so difficult to work on & its not the cars fault.
Many thanks for the assistance folks..Robert. The reason women's minds are cleaner than a mans mind is that women change their minds more often!
When women say fine a mans in deep doodoo as fine has so many meanings.

Tried tightening it at all to help break the metal lock??

Also while trying to undo it apply a sharp vibration, ie whack it with a hammer as this can also help  FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
Mantec Sump Guard, Rigid Load liner, MY10 BT upgrade.

Might be easier replacing both inner and outer track rod ends

Maybe its the times the cars go off road but I couldnt agree more, It took me about an hour with an impact wrench to undo the caliper bolts on mine to change the pads and even longer with lots of WD40 and swearing to undo the lower hub ball joint. So much rust for a 7 year old car and not a washer or any copper grease in sight. I think if I ever bought one new (highly unlikely unless build quality has improved somewhat!) I would dismantle everything brake and suspension related, grease up and re assemble.

I've done that with every car I've owned.
Overtime just remove, copper grease and replace every bolt, nut etc you come across.
Makes maintenance and replacement of bits really easy.

I'm a firm advocate of copperslip & buy the stuff by the gallon, I simply cannot understand the thinking of the people who put these things together with no copperslip added, it takes a few seconds & saves an awful lot of grief in the future.
I've tried tightening it as well but it will not move in any direction & shock blows to loosen it. This is easily the worst car that I've ever come across & its spoiling my experience of the whole thing, but when it runs properly it puts a huge smile on your face that lasts right up until it makes another unusual noise.
Robert. The reason women's minds are cleaner than a mans mind is that women change their minds more often!
When women say fine a mans in deep doodoo as fine has so many meanings.

Is it not possible to let the weight of the car undo the offending nut for you.
Try jacking the car up 80mm, put your spanner or preferably a pair of Stilsons on the nut with the spanner end resting on a block of wood and then gently let the car down.
Usually works, you can apply a lot more force than by hand.

I tried using the jack trick with a spanner in place but it was obvious that the spanner was just going to slip & leave me with even more problems. I didn't try it with stilsons though. Food for thought.
Many thanks...Robert. The reason women's minds are cleaner than a mans mind is that women change their minds more often!
When women say fine a mans in deep doodoo as fine has so many meanings.

Stilsons is how I bent my inner track rod. Cut clip on inner (wider) end of gater and pull towards track rod end you will see a large nut at the steering rack end with the inner tracked coming from the centre of it. Unscrew from rack it should come easily. Put both the lot in a vice etc to work on, but like I said earlier mine still would not come so replaced both. Will replace both on otherwise when it needs doing. If you do get it undone just replace clip on gater with a cable tie, mine has been fine since and passed its. MOT like that Mine was a blue one!

Andy3681 wrote:

Stilsons is how I bent my inner track rod. Cut clip on inner (wider) end of gater and pull towards track rod end you will see a large nut at the steering rack end with the inner tracked coming from the centre of it. Unscrew from rack it should come easily. Put both the lot in a vice etc to work on, but like I said earlier mine still would not come so replaced both. Will replace both on otherwise when it needs doing. If you do get it undone just replace clip on gater with a cable tie, mine has been fine since and passed its. MOT like that

It's how the garage did mine after I it up. They could not undo it in the vice so like I said replaced the lot
Good luck Mine was a blue one!

I have a set of stilsons that are a meter long!!! Purchased from a cheepy market stall and boy are they good at track rod ends...

Not found one stubborn enough yet!!!


Craig