Inner tie rods bad?? at 50,000 miles?

Hi All, Been browsing the forums since summer, and picked up my '07 CS back in September. Anyway, brought my car to the dealer last week for my 50,000 mile oil change and they mentioned to me that the inner left tie rod has play in it and should be replaced. To me, 50,000 miles seems extremely low for a tie rod end to be replaced or need to be replaced. I have not had the work done yet, as I want to see for myself how much play there is or have a second mechanic look at it, as the dealer quoted me over $600 to do the job - $150 for the part, then 3-4 hours labor, and an alignment afterwards. As a note, I do have _some_ vibration in the steering wheel, but I'm not sure if that's tires out of balance or if it could be related, as per my research, tie rod ends could cause vibration in the wheel. What's everyone's thoughts on this? Do the miles seem too low, or is it possible that the inner could be bad at this mileage? OH, and here she is for those interested Pete

Hey, another Pete on the site, welcome and beautiful color for the Cayman ! Since the car is pre-owned, you don't know the history of it. If the previous owner drove like my ex co-worker on NYC roads, you'd be lucky a completely new suspension wasn't required @ 50K miles!

I too think that 50k miles is low for this type of repair. But as Pistol said, it's tough to make a fair assessment without knowing the history of the car. That photo is gorgeous. Is that your 356 as well?

Thanks for the advise guys. As far as history of the car, the previous owner (who had it for about 13k miles - I have pics from the listing he bought it off of) lived in NYC, but the car was not actively driven in NYC (he had it stored in a garage outside the city). And the original owner lived in North Carolina. From the service records that I have, I have one from 24,000 miles that has a multipoint inspection of the car, all steering related components including linkages were green and "Checked and OK at this time". Unfortunately, I do not know much more history then that. The PO whom I bought it from claims he never tracked it because he didn't want to put that kind of abuse on the car, but I can't speak at all for the original owner. As far as the 356c (replica) goes, it is NOT mine, but it is a beautiful car. It belongs to a neighbor of my dad who is somewhat of a car nut. Currently, he owns the 356c replica (he claims that to be his wife's), a 356 speedster replica (his) and an original 1968 912. When growing up, he had an original 356 speedster too. When I was growing up, I always envied his cars , and when I got the CS, we decided to do a little photo shoot together. Another pic from that shoot.... From the same day, w/o the 356. -Pete [edit] - corrected mileage that PO owned car....

My 997 has been diagnosed with the same at only 27k miles OPC tell me that whilst not common it's not unusual either

Working for a GM dealer I've seen it happen on certain vehicles with only 20,000 miles on them, while others will last 120,000 miles. It is a wear item, so it's really not a big deal.

So it's been a while since I posted about this, and I thought I'd give an update. I took the car to another well trusted independent shop that specializes in Porsche 's. They confirmed the dealers diagnosis of the inner tie rod, saying it was pretty sloppy. I'm having them replace it, and also the other side as well, for piece of mind and also they mentioned that it might be starting to get a little sloppy, and it didn't add much more then the cost of the part to have it done. I'll be picking it up tomorrow, and I'll be interested to see how much difference it makes, especially since it's pretty much been this way since I bought the car (I've only put about 5k miles on it since I bought it). Pete

i have 2006 997 C2 car, just some days ago at pre-track inspection my indi found out right side tie rod is shot. he says he did 6 cars like mine, all 2006 - boxsters and croc included and he suspects it was a bad batch of inner rod parts on 2006 cars. be aware of that, test yours.

How do you test the tie rods? I've noticed slight vibration on some roads, but not others. Thought I would check next time under the car...

Just had both of mine replaced, at the same time as the broken front spring. As above i noticed a little play while replacing my discs TRW seems to be the O.E ones from some Porsche specialists, they even had a little logo filed off if i remember. Have seen it on bearings before when companies supply the same parts to manufacturers, but don't want or aren't allowed to let you know.

TRW are probably fine, not sure. there is huge price diff on those parts, from $44 up to $150. i just got it done at the race shop that services my car, total was $660 - replacement of inner rods with next day delivery charge and alignment. not cheap, but, well, it is easier for me this way when i want to be on the track tomorrow.

I know I'm late to the tie rod party but my dealer replaced the tie rods on the old 06' Cayman at around 40k ish miles so this may not be such an uncommon issue. Luckily it was covered under warranty.

Just had the left side done on my car at 40K miles. Unwelcome expense right before a trip to the track, but better to find out before the track than on it.

I'm going to add myself as a data point for this discussion. I have a 2006 Cayman S with just over 20,000 miles. When I brought the car in to have the alignment checked, I learned that both inner tie rods were worn! I autocross the car casually. I run -2 deg negative camber up front (with plates) on Hankook RS3 tires . I saw that TRW sells these, but not being sure if they're the same, I decided to order the OEM parts from Suncoast . In case anyone is interested, the part number is 997-347-32201, and they cost $112 each.

My tire dealer told me that about my Toyota Tundra with 58K miles during my state inspection. They failed it and told me it would be $260. They had just done an alignment 5K miles before, so I was skeptical since they should have noticed a problem at the alignment and since it was so low miles. I took it home and put it on my lift. Seemed fine to me. That was 8K miles ago and no problems since. I also had it inspected elsewhere. I didn't ask about my tie rods, but they didn't notice it. I assume they were trying to rip me off. They missed out on a tire sale since then.

I checked them myself while the car was on the rack. I could wiggle each wheel 1/4". That's a lot of toe! They're definitely shot.

Mine were replaced on my ' 06 Cayman S at 30k miles. Wiggle was about 1/4".

I'm here to tell you that my front end has shown to require the most maintenance for me. At 180k, my '07 Cayman has consumed inner and outer tie rod ends at different times and two sets of lower ball joints. The second set of ball joints being the Vertex screw-in replacements. I recently did the outer tie rods and my take-away is when you feel something driving or feel something on jack stands, you'll know and you probably have something that needs replaced. I used to think it was too difficult to tell if those parts were worn but I don't think that anymore. When they're gone, you can feel the movement in your hands. C.