Tie rod boot slipped?

[Bossworld]

For once in this car's life it would be nice for it to go straight through an MOT so just planning ahead.  I replaced the lower arms and both tie rod ends about 18 months ago.  Just been doing my final checks before a road trip tomorrow and noticed the nearside boot looks like it's slipped down beneath the retaining ring?  I've just tried prodding a flat object around and I can lift the metal retaining ring up and down freely :/

Is this exposing more of the balljoint itself than is allowed?  The boot on the offside sits much further up in comparison (both wheels are straight forward at the moment)



Thanks

Edit: for the sake of £9 I've just ordered another TRE. Just got to hope the old one comes off easily, both the TRE and inner rod were brand new less than 2 years ago

[mr2garageswindon]

Yep that should be an MOT fail boot allowing ingress of dirt etc.
No point in messing around trying to replace just the rubber boot, as you have just replace whole track rod end. 

[Bossworld]

Yep that should be an MOT fail boot allowing ingress of dirt etc.
No point in messing around trying to replace just the rubber boot, as you have just replace whole track rod end. 

Cheers, just waiting on delivery of the replacement. For the sake of £9 not worth going back and forth for its test

[Bossworld]

Well... on the plus side, that took longer to get the tools out and jack the car up than it did to replace!  Almost a dream of a job, snapped the retaining pin out, castle nut came straight off with the windy gun, knocked the ball joint back through with three gentle taps and then the TRE came off by hand once I'd loosened the locknut.

22 turns back on (21 1/2 off on the old one) which is possibly due to where it starts threading but levelled up to where I'd marked the inner tie rod so I'm happy it's correct.

Unfortunately, as Carolyn's identified on others, my cheap Yaris arms seem to be suffering from the rubber perishing.  Honestly don't know if this will get through as it's still covering the part but it's clearly separated from the lower base.

The seller has said before that they have a 2 year warranty but that there must be an MOT fail for them to replace.  Offside looks OK still.  Can only hope that if it does fail, it'll come back off more easily than last time.

[Joesson]

Perishing rubber in such locations on after market parts is not a recent thing. The after market track rod end rubbers on Mrs J's Fiesta we're short lived and that was around 20 years ago. The OE  ones that  I eventually used were more durable. Back then the Ford OE part was very competitive with aftermarket but less convenient to acquire. The difference in prices OE/ AM  parts, today, for Toyota is quite substantial. If only!

[Bossworld]

Perishing rubber in such locations on after market parts is not a recent thing. The after market track rod end rubbers on Mrs J's Fiesta we're short lived and that was around 20 years ago. The OE  ones that  I eventually used were more durable. Back then the Ford OE part was very competitive with aftermarket but less convenient to acquire. The difference in prices OE/ AM  parts, today, for Toyota is quite substantial. If only!

I've spotted some Quinton Hazell ones for £23 a side which I think I'll try, they might not be much better but at least it's a 'brand' that's always cited in parts catalogues. Not holding out much hope from the seller of the last 'no name' set - if they're reliant on an MOT fail to issue a refund, I'd not be saving any money or time.

[Joesson]

Perishing rubber in such locations on after market parts is not a recent thing. The after market track rod end rubbers on Mrs J's Fiesta we're short lived and that was around 20 years ago. The OE  ones that  I eventually used were more durable. Back then the Ford OE part was very competitive with aftermarket but less convenient to acquire. The difference in prices OE/ AM  parts, today, for Toyota is quite substantial. If only!

I've spotted some Quinton Hazell ones for £23 a side which I think I'll try, they might not be much better but at least it's a 'brand' that's always cited in parts catalogues. Not holding out much hope from the seller of the last 'no name' set - if they're reliant on an MOT fail to issue a refund, I'd not be saving any money or time.

Any good?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Comline-Outer-Front-Track-Tie-Rod-End-CTR3078-BRAND-NEW-5-YEAR-WARRANTY/174323690388?fits=Car+Make%3AToyota%7CModel%3AMR+2%7CCars+Year%3A2002&epid=1237588836&hash=item2896806b94:g:Z~YAAOSwwTla6z43

[Bossworld]

Perishing rubber in such locations on after market parts is not a recent thing. The after market track rod end rubbers on Mrs J's Fiesta we're short lived and that was around 20 years ago. The OE  ones that  I eventually used were more durable. Back then the Ford OE part was very competitive with aftermarket but less convenient to acquire. The difference in prices OE/ AM  parts, today, for Toyota is quite substantial. If only!

I've spotted some Quinton Hazell ones for £23 a side which I think I'll try, they might not be much better but at least it's a 'brand' that's always cited in parts catalogues. Not holding out much hope from the seller of the last 'no name' set - if they're reliant on an MOT fail to issue a refund, I'd not be saving any money or time.

Any good?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Comline-Outer-Front-Track-Tie-Rod-End-CTR3078-BRAND-NEW-5-YEAR-WARRANTY/174323690388?fits=Car+Make%3AToyota%7CModel%3AMR+2%7CCars+Year%3A2002&epid=1237588836&hash=item2896806b94:g:Z~YAAOSwwTla6z43

Sorry mate I've not been very clear, the Mapco TREs from their eBay store are £9 and other than my mishap on one side seem OK (and are the same length as OEM).

The wishbones (my other rubber trouble) - trying to find something 'branded'  as the cheap eBay ones are a minefield and seem to have the choice of Moog from ECP or Quinton Hazell from eBay

[1979scotte]

Have we tried TCB or GT4PLAY?

[Joesson]

Perishing rubber in such locations on after market parts is not a recent thing. The after market track rod end rubbers on Mrs J's Fiesta we're short lived and that was around 20 years ago. The OE  ones that  I eventually used were more durable. Back then the Ford OE part was very competitive with aftermarket but less convenient to acquire. The difference in prices OE/ AM  parts, today, for Toyota is quite substantial. If only!

I've spotted some Quinton Hazell ones for £23 a side which I think I'll try, they might not be much better but at least it's a 'brand' that's always cited in parts catalogues. Not holding out much hope from the seller of the last 'no name' set - if they're reliant on an MOT fail to issue a refund, I'd not be saving any money or time.

Any good?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Comline-Outer-Front-Track-Tie-Rod-End-CTR3078-BRAND-NEW-5-YEAR-WARRANTY/174323690388?fits=Car+Make%3AToyota%7CModel%3AMR+2%7CCars+Year%3A2002&epid=1237588836&hash=item2896806b94:g:Z~YAAOSwwTla6z43

Sorry mate I've not been very clear, the Mapco TREs from their eBay store are £9 and other than my mishap on one side seem OK (and are the same length as OEM).

The wishbones (my other rubber trouble) - trying to find something 'branded'  as the cheap eBay ones are a minefield and seem to have the choice of Moog from ECP or Quinton Hazell from eBay

Have you seen the talk on here of polybushes ( SuperPro) from TCB as being not so hard as generally understood?

[Bossworld]

Have you seen the talk on here of polybushes ( SuperPro) from TCB as being not so hard as generally understood?

The bushes seem to have survived OK, it's these cheap ballpoint rubber covers that seem to be at fault (as you and Carolyn have gone into detail with). I need to keep the car as 'normal' as possible as I think my Mum's taking mine on in the spring and I'll be selling hers.

Another thread mentions someone who tried retrofitting Moog ballpoints into cheapy arms and found they wouldn't fit so needed to go back to stock arms (if anyone remembers my ordeal, they came off in several pieces lol)

The supplier has come back to me and offered replacements, though they're OOS on their site so not sure how this will play out. The Moog ones on ECP look a good bet but the front right is about twice the price and ECP have confirmed that's correct based on cost price, possibly a new wholesaler.

Scotte - I think the issue we're all either fighting or likely to encounter in the future is that there is no definitive evidence the Yaris/Scion arms are 100% suitable for the MR2. The part numbers are not officially interchangeable, which possibly accounts for why they're not listed on TCB's site, and there are two different rear bush sizes for Yaris (12mm and 14mm). To all intents and purposes the 12mm Yaris ones fit OK, but several people have had issues with the ball joints - the rubber perishing, someone mentioned the taper not being right, another poster had issues with the castle nut and length of the thread.

The problem is two-fold a) the comparative cost of ones specifically labelled as MR2 compatible and b) knowing whether any of these cheap Yaris arms are actually better than the others, or just priced differently

[Bossworld]

Status update - Energized Customs have agreed to refund the other arms.  I'll wait until I've got the replacements before I take them off as I don't want to leave the knuckle dangling (I'm not thinking straight at the minute but I'm not sure if it will leave pressure on the rack/inner tie rods).

I've taken a punt on these, they're seemingly manufactured in Turkey and others from the same manufacturer get a good write up.  Don't know if it's an issue that it's a nyloc nut on the balljoint rather than a castle nut and pin but I assume it's just a different way of doing the same thing?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/153844163565

https://www.etsauto.com/en/p/track-control-arm-lh_27568

A lot of third parties don't seem to have stock of the lower right at the minute which echoes ECP's problem.  Strange.

I'd have preferred the Febi Bilstein ones or Moog but not convinced they're treble/double the price better.

Speaking of the cheap ones - yikes - https://chinese.alibaba.com/product-detail/Lower-Control-Arm-48068-59035-48068-60774477401.html