I would never have suspected that the inner tie rods could produce so much noise, but they are apparently the origin of the front end clunks, groans, and squeaks that have plagued my '09 XJR.

I attribute the fact that I was able to avoid the inevitable replacement of suspension bushings, ball joints, etc. for 30-40K past their typical shelf life to the car being primarily subjected to long distance commuter miles. But the job finally came due and last winter I did a complete replacement of suspension components at all four corners. Still riding on original air springs, so that bullet has been dodged so far, but everything else was renewed.

With everything shiny and new and aligned I still found that I was getting intermittent noise that I would typically attribute to bushings. I did find one tie rod end maybe not fully torqued down, but rectifying that still didn't eliminate the noises. Which weren't bad, and weren't constant, but had me wondering if I had a failing air spring or there was some other fitting that wasn't fully tightened.

I eventually got under there with a stethescope and found some slight popping from the steering rack under load. I had contemplated replacing the inner tie rods at the time I did all the other suspension parts but everything seemed tight so I had decided not to. Since I had pretty much eliminated everything else I figured I better trade them out. The Lemforder 2970201 tie rods were ordered and were pretty simple to replace. As is generally the case with these cars, just getting them in the air can be the toughest part.

Back on the ground, out for a test drive and dead silence. It seems almost impossible that the beefy ball joint on the inner end of that tie rod could produce all the sounds that were so stubborn to track down. They weren't loose, they make no noise when you manually manipulate them but they apparently were the culprit.

So if anyone is chasing suspension noise like I did I suggest that you look into the tie rods. I would have put money on the types of noises being due to a bushing somewhere since they would occur on small road irregularities while driving straight ahead as well as when turning. So for anyone chasing suspension noise you might want to consider the inner tie rods to be not the last place you look, as I did.

 

Great addition to the list of front end woes.

I read post quickly and maybe missed the details, but can you describe WHEN you were hearing your noises. Turning steering wheel? Slow driving on rough pavement? Large barriers like speed strips in parking lots.

Thanks and congrats!

 

rubber mallet will find these noises

 

If it had been restricted to noise while turning I likely would have pursued the inner rods a little sooner. But it was not only while turning, but driving straight over mildly uneven pavement or moderate deflection like crossing the gutter into a driveway. Larger suspension movement like speed bumps didn't seem to be a typical cause. And since it was intermittent, the bane of any diagnostic work, it was difficult to apply much logic.

And with suspension noises being a common theme among these threads, it seemed like one the usual suspects would be the source- sway bar bushes, upper control arm bushes, sway bar links. But these were all new, and triple checked for tightness. And while I was renewing all the other suspension components I did check that there was no play in the rack and decided not to replace inner rods at that time. But this was with the suspension unloaded, and it wasn't until I got the front wheels on blocking and tested for play under load that I could hear the slight knocking as the steering was rocked back and forth. Interestingly, while driving, the noise was more a groan, or grinding, or the very descriptive "graunch," not really any kind of knocking sound.

So for anybody chasing front end noises, those inner rods may be the relatively quick and inexpensive fix. Especially compared to the expense and difficulty of items like sway bar bushes (complete pain) or control arms (serious money).