Found a couple things while wheeling and have some questions...

The last months worth of weekends I've been out wheeling around, enjoying the weather. Last weekend I was riding pretty quick through some sand washes, taking pretty hard turns, then out of washes over whoops, and on tight turns I'd hear what felt and sounded like ABS acitavating. I assumed it was TRAC doing its thing while in 4H.

For safe measure I parked and looked under the drivers side and noticed a couple things:

1) The lower half of the drivers side tie rod boot appeared wet. Rubbed my fingers in there and it's a thick black grease, bearing grease I assume? Any searching I've done people mentioned leaking steering racks, but I replaced my power steering fluid last October and the reservoir is totally full still.

2) Sway bar end link boots are torn so I plan on replacing those.

3) When I got back in the truck to drive away, I made it 5ft and the fuckin' hood popped open! I swear I didn't hit the hood release but who knows....

So this weekend I plan on replacing my serpentine belt, will be removing the skid plate, and while that's off I'm going to clean off the tie rod boot with some simple green and keep an eye on it.

A few questions if I still have your attention:

Anyone have torque specs for sway bar end links? Any tips before attempting replacing them?

and any thoughts on my tie rod boots? Like I said the PS fluid res is still full so I don't want to freak out and assume I have steering rack leak. I'm assuming I was just wheeling hard and some bearing grease made it's way out, but what do I know?

 

Did you check the CV boot for cracks? They prob would be in the v of the folds so you may have to look at them pretty good.

 

That's what I was going to do this weekend when I have the skid plate off and I clean the boot.

In fact I'll go do that right now and check back.

 

Just went out there with a flashlight, and while theres a few inches I can't check that are covered by the skid plate the boot seems to be in good shape. No cracking that I can see at all.

 

Grease coming from a CV joint will normally be obvious where it came from (it'll be splattered in glops & clumps all over everything).
Greasy-looking oil on a tie-rod boot is usually a very slow leak from within the rack (so slow that it doesn't affect the reservoir level right away). Most people just leave it alone because it normally doesn't cause an issue. Just keep an eye on it... If it actually starts to drip, then it might be worth pursuing a repair.

That's interesting about your hood popping open... I was doing a vehicle extraction a couple weeks ago and that happened to me too (next thing I knew, the truck was beeping at me telling me "Hood Ajar"). The hood pull latch is recessed under the dash, so having accidentally hit it seems unlikely. I have no idea how it happened.

 

the vehicle info might help these ?s

 

The grease on the tie rod appears to be just that, a thick black grease, not what I would think of as power steering fluid or oil. I cleaned it up and will keep an eye on it.

Sorry thought I mentioned.... '19 TRD OR. Recently hit 80k miles.

 

Get rid of your sway bar, and you won't have to worry about your end links. Unless you like hitting turns like an F1 car on the road, it's pretty worthless.

 

I'm seriously considering taken it off temporarily to see what happens.

 

Do it, and if you miss it, well just throw it back on & order those end links. Odds are, you'll trash it like a lotttt of us have.

 

I'm assuming you didn't have to do anything with the brake lines or do any other modifications after removing?