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Center Tie Rod (Super beetle)
narumi - June 15th, 2013 at 02:10 AM

I bought a center tie rod from overseas that goes from the box to the idler.
installed it on the car and it was making squeaky noise.
I thought it was the idler arm bush that was making noise.
but today I had a chance to look at it and took the idler arm off and turn out the tie rod was squeaking.
I proceed to use spray grease into the boot which seemed to help.
the noise is completely gone now after a short drive, steering is also lighter.

my question is arent all tie rod pre-greased, or did I get the bad one.


Uber Kafer - June 15th, 2013 at 10:20 AM

we assume some things, and grease from the factory would be one of them. I normally give the boot a bit of 'squish' test to check though. Might be a good move to force some more grease in to yours, depending on what sort of grease you already sprayed in, and how much.

Just a thought.... if you got the part from the US, check that its not operating at some funny angle, ie at the limits of the tie rod end rotation/travel and partially binding. I expect they are symmetrical and you have just flipped it, but without seeing it ??... I am just putting it out there.


Joel - June 15th, 2013 at 10:37 AM

The drag link only fits one way and they are the exact same part LHD or RHD.

I suspect you may be right as the amount of people that complain their steering is heavy after replacing it suggests they are not shipped with enough grease in them.


narumi - June 15th, 2013 at 10:44 AM

I will have to pull the rods out again and change the boot i ruined aswell, don't know if I should use more lithium grease or HTB


Lucky Phil - June 16th, 2013 at 09:47 PM

Good question.
The Litium grease these days seems to be cr@p and seperates very quickly. I don't like it.
HTB seems to hold together better.


narumi - June 17th, 2013 at 12:56 AM

@Joel I doubt this one come with grease at all haha.

I sprayed the grease on when i put in new brake rotor (ebay RDA slotted rotor{because it was cheaper than non slotted})
now that I no longer have squeaky steering noise. I have brake noise lol
hopefully goes away once bedded in.