I was having a conversation this past weekend about Tie Rods and thought it would make for some interesting conversation here.  The Tie Rod connects your wheel to the steering mechanism that is attached to your steering wheel.  If the tie rod breaks, you are no longer able to steer that wheel, which can be bad.  At the end of the tie rod, where it connects to the wheel, there is something called a ball joint  The ball joint is a ball of rubber, with grease inside, that acts as a bushing or cushion for the tremendous load this mechanism endures during normal driving.  Some of these ball joints have a grease fitting (called a Zerk Fitting) on them that allows grease to enter the joint; some of them are sealed where you are unable to add grease.  Grease is a good thing, it keeps things clean, cool, and lubed.  Ever wonder why its called a Lube, Oil  & Filter.

 

Make sure that who ever changes your oil, greases your ball joints (if they are not the sealed kind) seeing that ball joints are often the part of the tie rod that fails; again, that would be bad.  Here is a picture of what this silly thing looks like to help put into perspective:

 

 

Photos Courtesy of CarQuest ®