Rear Toe Links Rusted

[furinax]

The last time I got an alignment my shop told me my tie rod ends were rusted. I didn't inquire which ones but today I went under the car and checked out the suspension. The only thing I could find that was rusted was the nut on the rear toe link. Is this worth replacing now or should I wait until my next alignment? I am eyeing the pieces from Carbon6Composites but if the rust doesn't affect performance at all then I would just buy it when I need it.

I also saw rust on my front sway bar end links but let's face it whose end links aren't rusted?

 

[Old Guy]

Just a thought on the sway bar links. The links on my 2000 NSX have not been a problem; but, the rear sway bar links on my 2003 Honda Pilot have been. The Pilot being top heavy and having fairly soft springs gives the sway bar links a good work out and I have had the links separate. The rubber bush part pulls right out of the metal cap on the actual link. That is an inconvenience; but, not a huge problem. What can be a huge problem is that after the link has separated and if the retaining nut has rusted up solid, getting the remains of the link out of the sway bar or upright can be interesting. On my Pilot, I couldn't get a hack saw in place to cut off the nut and I did not want to disassemble the rear suspension so I had to squeeze a 3" pneumatic cut off wheel into the space to remove the nut. Avoiding collateral damage was no fun.

The nuts on your sway bar links don't look bad, nothing like the lump 'o' rust on my Pilot. But, if I was inclined to do something preventative I would run the nuts off the links and apply some anti seize to the threads on the link ends. This won't provide a long term solution to surface rusting; but, should prevent the complete seizure of the nut making future maintenance easier. You could do the same thing to the castellated nut on the toe link as an aid to future maintenance.

 

[furinax]

I've always had to cut off sway bar end links. Even my shop does it. Here in the Northeast you get so much rain/snow/salt it's just a fact of life. Though I'm sure you know since you are in Canada.

The rusted part you see above is the rear tie rod which I'm guessing needs to be turned for adjustment so they can't have it rusted? And I'm thinking anti-sieze may prevent the alignment from staying?

 

[Old Guy]

If we are talking about part 20 and 21 in this diagram, Honda calls it the control arm in the parts manual and the toe control arm in the shop manual.

Rear Lower Arm for 2000 Acura NSX COUPE | Acura OEM Parts

The NSX does have tie rods ends which look just like the ends of the toe control arm; but, they are up front connected to the ends of the steering rack. That's Honda speak.

As long as we are both talking about part #20 in that diagram the obviously rusted part is the castle nut (with the cotter pin through it) and that does not affect alignment. You don't need to un do the castle nut to adjust the rear toe because part #20 is connected to part #21 with an adjuster part #22 . Both #20 and #21 thread on to #22 and are locked with nuts. Applying anti seize on to the threads of #22 won't result in alignment drifting because that is what the lock nuts are for. However, I wasn't proposing to lubricate #22 because that would require disassembling the toe link. Normally when you do a toe adjustment you just loosen the lock nuts and tweak the adjuster a bit to shorten or lengthen the link and then tighten the lock nuts. That doesn't really give you an opportunity to apply anti seize.

The castle nut only has to be released if you need to replace the end of the control arm. The ball joint in the toe link is not super heavily loaded and I may die before the ones on my car wear out. As such you may never need to undo that nut unless you want to replace them with the Carbon 6 toe links 'just because'. If you are OK with getting in there and using a cut of wheel to remove nuts in the future then don't worry about the rust or use anti seize. My hang up is that its so crowded in there that I don't want to use a cut off wheel and like to apply anti seize as a preventative measure to every nut and bolt that I touch. The only thing to remember with anti seize is that it is a thread lubricant so you need to reduce the applied torque about 10% when tightening stuff (unless the recommended torque is based upon lubricated threads as opposed to dry threads).