I just noticed the steering knuckle on the passenger side is about 0.5mm away from my $130 new tire. The gap is wider on the driver side. Passenger side lower ball joint cover is ripped so I'm thinking it may need to be replaced. I checked for play by manually moving tire side/side up/down, it seems tight.

 

How much wider on the other side. From that description, it could be a lot of things.

 

The gap is at least double on the the driver's side. I see no other parts it could be besides lower ball joint.

 

So the passenger side has a .5mm and driver side 1.0 mm gap? I'd guess (without knowing/seeing more) that a .5mm difference is a fairly acceptable margin of error. Did you put wider than stock tires and/or rims on?

I'd start with an allignment.

 

I haven't measured anything, but both of my lower ball joint covers are also ripped (2001 with 95k). What is the impact of those being ripped? The car seems to ride the same as it always has; of course, the ride could have deteriorated over the years and I may not have noticed it.

 

.5mm and 1.0mm are just estimates. I'll have to find my feeler gauge and measure to get exact numbers.

I went back with stock 255/65/16 tires in general grabber AT2s.

Toe is -0.18 degrees out of alignment on the right side. I plan to get an alignment after I have replaced bad components.

 

Ripped boot will allow dirt/mud/sand to come in contact with joint which will eventually destroy it.

 

You don't replace a tie rod end because of measurements, all though it helps, you need to do the old trusted and true compression test with a big pair of channel locks. If there is a bad one, you should replace both, which means a complete replacement of the section otherwise, with one new and one lod, the new one will cause the older one to fail because it is more ridged.

 

Mike, my tie rod ends are ok (although they do need new boots). It's my right ball joint that I am concerned about. I believe it may be wearing out and allowing steering knuckle to come in close contact with my tire.

 

The photos are zoomed in on the tie rod ends.