Track rod end nuts working loose

L

LordTJC

Member
A week or so ago I fitted two new track rod ends to my car. The previous ones had the top nut work loose and damage the threads so they couldn’t be tightened. I have done about 250 miles on the new ones, and both track rod ends have just failed the MOT on loose nuts. The nuts were definitely as right as they could be when fitted. The suggestion made by the garage was either the parts I’m fitting have the taper made wrong, or my hubs have a worn taper.

Can anyone advise on what size the taper should be so I can compare to what I’ve got?

Thanks.
Tim
 
Were you able to tighten the nuts properly? Might have been that the ball was spinning during tightening. Seems odd that the taper would wear the same and cause the same symptoms on each side, always worth cleaning the inner taper off with a bit of wire wool or something to remove any surface corrosion that might have been there, make sure it's clean before putting the new one in. The spec for these locking nuts is 45 nm per the workshop manual.
 
If the old track rod end bolts were loose that's fine as long as the joint was rusted fast between the track rod end taper and the taper on the steering knuckle arm.

If the track rod end tapered shaft was loose and moving about inside the knuckle arm taper then you may have an oval rather than circular taper now.
😔

Side to side play in the joint when you steer the car maybe causing those bolts to back off.

Hopefully this is not the problem.

Edit
If you are working on the track rod ends once you have cleaned the steering knuckle taper take a photo from directly below. I would use the count down timer function of the camera phone and pop the phone down on a flat surface facing up at the knuckle and wait for it to take the shot.
You'll be able to see if it looks in good shape.

Good luck :) 👍
 
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I suspect they were not tight enough. Get a good sized breaker on there and give it a good pull. Should then be sorted.
If you need the Audi torque spec I can look it up but you should already have sorted the problem.
 
If they got loose it is most likely because of the oval holes in the spindle as it happened again.

I would tighten it again according the specs and if it gets loose again, spindles are the suspect...
 
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