Tie Rods Bad?

[Chicagos13]

I think my tie rods have officially gone bad. At first, when I turned the wheel to the right at stop or slow speed, I would here this clunk, clunk, clunk..., but now it's either direction. It seems that the noise is coming from the front passenger side. A few friends and myself think it the tie rods. Does this diagnosis sound accurate. I would love to start replacing most of the front multi-link arms, but I don't have much $$$ so I need to start one at a time,which sucks for alignments, beginning with the problem at hand. Thanks.

[mss5413]

jack up the front of the car and check the wheels for any freeplay. If the wheel has any left to right slack by wiggling it by hand the the tie ends are bad. Check both sides. It is just a screw on application.

[ricebike]

do you have "sloppy steering"? if u just hear a clunking on turns, i'd suggest a visual check of the TC rod bushings & swaybar endlinks 1st... then doing that test for freeplay.

then if u did confirm that it was the outer tie rods,

zerothread?id=116994

don't forget to check the lower ball joints (sux that nissan kept these joints "sealed" with no zerk fittings; i had to buy a grease fitting that looks like a needle to inject the joints w/ fresh lube)