So over the last couple of weeks I've had a slight front end knock. More of a feel than an actual knock so booked in with my local garage , who I must say is so far has been brill .
Any way when he checked it was very slight track rod end play on the near side , so I told him just replace it .
But the problem he encountered was he couldn't release the track rod end from the track rod inner as it was seized solid ,he rang me and I said just replace the lot , when I went to collect my FF he showed me the old part where he had to cut and heat to get the outer cover off , all done now but it's booked in on Monday to get the other side done although there's not play it's in the same heavily rusted condition and also for a new bottom arm as there is very slight play there although he said it's almost undectable , so just an update if you going to get your tracking done just to make sure all is unseized or renewed otherwise your wasting your time as the tracking will not get done and many out there will say it is . My mechanic is going to loosen off and anti seize all my tracking components prior to going for 4wheel tracking next week .
All that said my drive home felt great
Cheers henda

I’ve just had my track rod ends done and encountered the exact same problem. The inners were so cheap it made sense to do the lot

Henda wrote:

So over the last couple of weeks I've had a slight front end knock. More of a feel than an actual knock so booked in with my local garage , who I must say is so far has been brill .
Any way when he checked it was very slight track rod end play on the near side , so I told him just replace it .
But the problem he encountered was he couldn't release the track rod end from the track rod inner as it was seized solid ,he rang me and I said just replace the lot , when I went to collect my FF he showed me the old part where he had to cut and heat to get the outer cover off , all done now but it's booked in on Monday to get the other side done although there's not play it's in the same heavily rusted condition and also for a new bottom arm as there is very slight play there although he said it's almost undectable , so just an update if you going to get your tracking done just to make sure all is unseized or renewed otherwise your wasting your time as the tracking will not get done and many out there will say it is . My mechanic is going to loosen off and anti seize all my tracking components prior to going for 4wheel tracking next week .
All that said my drive home felt great
Cheers henda

Rear end is the next job unless my fitter says he's freed them and anti seized greased them

I just replaced the rears and they were solid did the fronts a few weeks ago due to wear inner and outer when I took the nearside inner out it was cross threaded - I have had the vehicle since 60k miles now on 185k so guess it came out the factory like that mmmm

Well all good now new o/s lower arm full new inner/ outer track rod on both sides 4 wheel tracking done , FF feels kind of stable and positive on the road now all done and came in under £300 inc tracking