Just purchased a 2004 Jaguar Xj8 and took it to a Jaguar Dealer for an inspection. I was told by Ashley, at the service desk, that the boots on the tie rods were just starting to crack, and a little bit of grease was starting to leak. The tie rods were still fine. She said that you still have to change the tie rods and that you can't just change the boots.

When I got home, I checked with another business in my community that works only on foreign cars. He said I should wait, if the tie rods were fine, no need to repair them now. Who do I believe? Thank you in advance for your help.

 

edited

 

Very nice picture, Buck, but I believe he means the boots on the outer tie rod ends. Jaguar does not sell those boots separately.

Arbus, I would go with what your friend said. The leaking boots will eventually allow the tie rod to fail. I would probably wait until that happens. The grease will eventually seep out and the steering will get sloppy. You don't want to wait until they get too bad however for two reasons. 1. safty 2. wearing out the front tires.

We sell the tie rods for just over $150 each.

 

I agree with ken, if you really get down to it you dont need to replace them until there is play, and those boots can be gone for awhile before you develope play in the tie rod. And more than likely they were refferring to the rear tie rods since they do it alot worse