Good Morning!
I have an 2007 LR3 w/77k miles and I am running KO2s LT275 /65 R18 and have had to replace the tie-rod ends/tie rods like every 6 months.
Does anyone else eat Tie Rod ends? Just all the time- at first i bought crappy ones then got the OEM good ones and it matters not :-(
Can a person replace them DIY without a lift?

Thanks,
James

 

That doesn't sound right. I went through a few tie-rods on my '05 but I was getting at least 20k miles out of them, and that still felt bad.

I put WAY more than that on the original set, then went through a next set rather quickly, with the theory being that even though I got fewer miles, a higher % of those miles were during off-road duty with larger tires (my '05 has been mostly a toy for a good 4 years now).

Have you gotten a proper alignment since setting up your vehicle like that with the larger tires? Maybe that contributes....? Are you driving around in off-road height all the time via rods or something? It's more unsprung weight, regardless of height selected, but the higher angles can't help either.

 

- Describe your driving/use over 6mo
- Do you run any type of lift
- When was your last alignment

 

I off-road a bit- Not all that much, maybe once every 60 days. Nothing crazy, some rock crawling going slow. I have it set via rods/IID tool enough to clear the tires when turning the wheels hard left/right. I usually get the 4wheel alignment after new tire rod ends are replaced. I know the larger tires would cause additional wear, but not as often as this. Perhaps I will try to drop the height a bit. I don't go to the max in height often, only usually to negotiate a tough obstacle while off roading.
Thanks,
james

 

 

Just posted picture to give an example of the height I drive on.
Driving is usually highway driving with a some offroading nothing terribly challenging
Alignment was done in August.

 

Nice looking rover!
My uneducated guess is that your specific mods are stressing things more than a bone stock setup
(duh, right?)

Whether or not that extra wear is "normal" or expected for your setup - I can't say
Hopefully someone else with similar mods can speak apples to apples

 

I agree that your LR3 looks nice.

A few things I observe from the picture though, that may be relevant:

You have a steel bumper and winch. That is going to add some weight and maybe necessitate the higher suspension setting. That could play into the stress, again, on the tie-rods...not so much the weight since it's sprung, but the need for the taller suspension setting as a result. More importantly though, what is the offset on those rims? It looks to me, and I'm not sure, that your wheels are poking out of the wheel wells more than mine do when I run 275/65R18s. Do you have spacers installed or is that just due to the non-factory wheel offset? That could be your issue.

 

Thank you re Lookin gooood- :-)
Yea it is a lot heavier- I am going to swap out the metal wire for synthetic eventually. But it is quite heavy. Regarding the wheel offset, no, no spacers. they just fit right on the hub. I think it being up higher, added weight (just installed in sept winch/bumper), and off-roading it. Though i replaced them at least 2x before I installed the bumper/winch. I think i need to figure out how to do on my own- clearly this is a thing with this vehicle.
Thank you!
James

 

I tried to find a photo of mine at a similar (quartering forward) angle with the 275s mounted. This is the best I could do. While you are not running spacers as you said, your offset is for sure not factory, and maybe that is stressing your tie-rods. Those rims are pretty cool, but have you considered switching to LR 18s?


Looks like I managed to find a pic with TWO LR3s in fact. Mine is the black one. I think that the silver one is on 31.5" tires, but you can see that the wheels on both rigs are not poking out of the wheel wells.