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My truck's steering will squeek like crazy when Im turning the steering wheel. It doesn't do it, however, when I let go of the wheel and the truck straightens out by itself.
A friend (mechanic) of mine said that its the tie-rod ends, and once they start to squeek, then they are bad and I need to replace them.
We had this happen on our '99 Windstar as well, and dad just lubed all the connections up and it's been fine since.
So should I worry about the tie-rods, or just lube everything up and hope the squeek doesn't come back?
I have heard many trucks like mine do this too....so that helped ease my pain a little. Its just embarassing when driving past the cute ladies at college
Mine squeaks as well. I haven't had the time yet to look for any zerk fittings to stuff grease into the tie rod ends. My truck doesn't ruin tires, or steer funny either. At 157k miles, I guess it deserves the right to squeak a bit, IMO.
The OEM tie rods and ball joints dont have grease zerks so if you have a needle greaser that will work just fine. I've had the same problem....The ball joints is what were making the noise on mine. I needle greased them and the noise went right away. I dont know if its so much that there going bad....I think the grease that comes in the boot already dries out. But longer and louder it makes the noise the more damage its doing.
My 97 was making a squeaking while turning the wheel. I thought it was the ball joints or tie rods, but it wasn't greased up the ball joints and it was still there. I remember there is a grease zerk fitting on the idler arm (I think). I greased it up and the noise is gone. It has been quiet now for almost 3 weeks even with the cold temps here in MN.