How to Replace Inner Tie Rod Ends 2008-12 Chevy Malibu

Okay, friends, before we get started, the first thing that I want to mention is you wanna be safe. So have hand protection and eye protection. The next thing we're gonna talk about is safely raising and supporting the vehicle so the suspension's hanging. So come right underneath here. This is where you're gonna support the vehicle in the front. Now, with the front of the vehicle safely raised and supported, we're gonna remove all five of our 19-millimeter lug nuts. Remove your wheel.

Now that we have the wheel off, we have a clear view of our tie rod area. I'm just gonna spray down these areas with some penetrant spray. Now we're gonna use some nice long pliers, and I'm gonna break this jam nut free. Turn this clockwise. There we are. Now we're gonna remove our outer tie rod end nut. If you find that the outer tie rod end nut just spins the whole stud inside of the knuckle, you could take those nice long pliers or whatever you might happen to have and just try to squeeze this down as tight as you can. We're gonna apply a little bit of pressure and we'll try again. If your tie rod's still stuck in the knuckle, it's great to use a hammer, bonk right on the knuckle right here and break it free.

For the next part, we're gonna want something that you can write with because we're gonna take off the tie rod, but as we turn it and we make a complete rotation, we're gonna count those rotations and take note of it. That's one, two, three, and so on. The next thing we need to do is hold our inner tie rod end shaft with some locking pliers. After that, we're gonna remove this jam nut. Next, we need to remove this clamp right here. I like to use some nice long pliers.

Next, we need to remove this metal clamp right here. To do that, it's easiest if you bonk on it with something. I'm just gonna use a pry bar and a hammer. I'm gonna bonk it, break it free, and we'll get that boot right off. Here it is. Grab onto your boot. Give it a nice little twist. See if you can break it free from the power steering rack. If your boot is stuck on the power steering rack, you can be careful and use an ice pick like this and just try to break it free. Oh, yeah. Now I can give it a nice twist. Pull it off the power steering rack. You might notice it's also stuck on here. If you want to use a tiny bit of penetrant, you could do that. I'm just gonna twist and give it a tug. It should wanna slide right off.

Next, it's gonna be time to get the inner tie rod end off of the power steering rack. A wise man once said whatever works, works. So you can either use some nice long pliers like this, an inner tie rod end tool that looks like this, or they even have a tube that would slide over with a little adapter. Do whatever you need to do, but turn it counterclockwise and remove it from the rack. Now that the tool's on there, let's go ahead and break this free. There we are. We'll just get our tool off of there, but there it is.

Now it's gonna be time to install our brand new inner tie rod end. One thing that you wanna do, of course, is to take off that jam nut. We're gonna be reusing it, so we'll just set it aside. After we've done that, we're gonna apply a little bit of grease, right along inside here of the nice packet that they gave us. Don't use it all because we're also gonna use a little bit right along this lip right here. I'll just put all this right in there. Using a gloved finger, go ahead and just smooch it all right in there. This is gonna help keep moisture out of there and, of course, help lubricate it over time. A little bit right here, like I said. If you wanna use a little bit of blue threadlocker on those threads, we'll call it your prerogative. I'm just gonna go ahead and screw this on here until it's nice and snug and then we'll tighten it to manufacturer specifications. Torque this to 74-foot-pounds.
Now it's gonna be time to get our inner tie rod end boot on there. Just go ahead and take a nice wire tie, start it so it's not tight yet. We're gonna slide this right on over. We'll put it over the rack as well, and then, of course, we'll snug it right up. You need to make sure you have some sort of clamp if you don't use a wire tie. Trim off the excess. Now we're gonna make sure we put on the outer clamp. If it's damaged or it doesn't seem like it has enough spring retention, of course, replace that with something as well. Now it's gonna be time to coat the threads with something. If you don't have any copper never seize, you can go ahead and just use a tiny bit of that grease that we just used for the inner tie rod end. New jam nut.

Now it's gonna be time to put on our brand new outer tie rod end. As you go to install it, make sure you put on the same amount of turns that you had to remove the old one. One, two, three, and so on. Should pretty much line up. Let's put on our outer tie rod end nut. We'll snug it up and then we'll torque it to manufacturer specifications as well. We wanna torque this to 18-foot-pounds and then add an additional 90 degrees. So basically 1/4 turn after the 18. So that's 18. Now I need to take it another 1/4 turn. I'm gonna start approximately like that and I'm gonna bring it right out to me. There we are.

The next thing we wanna do is pay attention to the slots on the nut, compare it to the hole in the stud. If it doesn't line up, you need to continue tightening until it does. Go to the very next slot. As you can tell, I have that lined up now. Take your cotter pin, slide it through, and then peen it over so there's no way this nut can loosen up on its own.

Now it's time to tighten up our jam nut. We're gonna grab this, turn it counterclockwise. That feels good. Now just go ahead and grab onto that tie rod, make sure it's pretty level and it's not kinked in any way. Double-check everything. We have all our clamps. Perfect. We're gonna go ahead and put the wheel on here. We'll start all the lug nuts. We'll snug them up and then we'll torque them to 100-foot-pounds. Torqued.