Tie-rod replacement gone wrong, input appreciated.

[Polski]

Log story short:
I changed both upper control arms and tie rod in the front drivers wheel.
It was a late night and i installed the tierod upside down by accident.
Drove about 10-15 miles like that, needless to say, something felt wrong as the ride was pretty bouncy from that side.

When I wanted to flip the tie rod, i realized that its slightly bent. Luckily I had a spare one.

So After installing everything properly, my front drivers wheel now wobbles at higher speeds ( on highway)....the exact same feeling as if the wheel had lost its balancing weights.


Does any one know of something else that might have gotten damaged during that 10-15 mile drive?
The rest of the components showed no signs of damage.

Thanks

[Seerlah]

I'm going to say you damaged the inner tie rod. Swap that part out also, and see how it feels afterwards. If you need one, I have extras laying around (FCP). And to confirm, the rod of the tie rod end is supposed to be pointing up when in the knuckle (or whatever you want to call it) with the ball joint end on the bottom.

[Polski]

I'm going to say you damaged the inner tie rod. Swap that part out also, and see how it feels afterwards. If you need one, I have extras laying around (FCP). And to confirm, the rod of the tie rod end is supposed to be pointing up when in the knuckle (or whatever you want to call it) with the ball joint end on the bottom.

Yeah initially i installed the tie rod pointing downwards into the knuckle :/....which caused countless hours of trying to get the wheels straight together afterwards..

Would I be damaging any other components while driving with the inner tie rod damaged for the meanwhile??

Thanks for that Seerlah. I think i'll go pick one up at a distributor..shipping us-canada would take quite some time. Appreciate the friendly gesture :)

Thought I still dont see why the wheel would wobble... i mean the tie rods are stationary components.

[ECS Tuning-Audi]

I just installed new outter tie rods on my B5 this weekend. It could be that your inners are shot but I doubt it. It could just be that your "toe" adjustment is way off. If your toe is facing inwords too much it will start cupping your tires.

I would definitely get an alignment done if you didn't measure your old tie rods before you undid everything.

Jason

[Seerlah]

When my inner tie rod was shot, it had a lot of play like a bad wheel bearing. Road noise and not having the steering wheel being at one with everything. replaced it, and all was good afterwards. And it isn't really stationary. There is a ball joint on it, where you can have a lot of in and out play once the joint is damaged.