FTO AUSTRALIA

My FTO steering has been feeling heavy lately and it's tramlining more (i'm in Hedland though and the roads are pretty crap from the road trains up here and temps = lots of grooves in the road).
Checked the tyre pressures and they are fine so had a very quick look today while I had the front wheel off for another reason and the track rod end / tie rod end rubber is badly gone so i'm suspecting after this happens crap gets in and the ball joint doesn't last two minutes.
So I know I need to replace these, could they be the cause of my heavy steering and tramlining (steering wheel really follows everything in the road) or should be also be looking at some other culprit?
I'm on stock 16" rims and stock suspension.

Where's the best place to get these from? I only have repco and autopro up here so may have to be somewhere online that delivers unless I can get from one of those.
i've seen some on ebay but unsure what they are like.

Can be, it's probably a combination of things though, alignment being the main culprit. Probably a good idea to replace the tie rods ends, then do alignment, because you'll probably need one after anyway.

Thanks Ben, do I need a ball joint separator to get these out? and if so is one of the fork style ok or do I want a spreader style that has a bolt through it?

Rob Furniss wrote:Thanks Ben, do I need a ball joint separator to get these out? and if so is one of the fork style ok or do I want a spreader style that has a bolt through it?

If you're going to replace them, just undo the nut a few turns & start whacking it with your favorite hammer

Will do, cheers Ben

I replaced the tie rod ends and boots the other week, haven't got the alignment done yet as i'm thinking the inner ball joints on the tie rods may be knackered too as I can move them about very freely - is this normal?
If it's normal then I will just get the alignment done and then see if I still have issues, the car is pulling about all over the road and this is even worse under braking, the car has only done 145000km's though so wouldn't have expected the inners to give way yet.

You should be able to move them up/down easy, but you should have no movement in/out.
If you have movement in/out it could be the inner tie rods or the steering rack itself.

Cheers Phil I will have another tug at it.

Rob Furniss wrote:Cheers Phil I will have another tug at it.

Daniel2019 wrote:

Rob Furniss wrote:Cheers Phil I will have another tug at it.

Hey Guys, need to get a new set of tie rod ends and cv boots, just wondering what the part numbers would be for a GPvR?

Generic, go ask any repco or supercheap