I had a torn tie rod boot replaced by a Subaru dealer a couple months ago on my wife's '02 Outback. When I rotated tires a couple weeks ago, I noticed that the new boot is not located on the tie rod as I would have expected. The four attached pics are the left and right boots on my Legacy GT, the remaining original boot on the Outback and finally the new boot on the Outback. When the pics were taken, the front of the car was jacked up and the wheels pointed straight ahead. Is the new boot installed correctly?
I'm gonna bump this up and hope for some sort of comment. It appears to me that the outer end (closest to the wheel) of the boot is positioned too far out on the tie rod causing the boot to be overly stretched when the wheels are steered in one direction (remember, the pic is what it looks like with the wheels pointing straight ahead). I just want to make sure this isn't going to cause premature failure of the new boot by stretching it farther than it is designed to be. Thanks in advance.
They look normal to me? There is a little groove for the boot to sit in on the inner rod. Loosen the clamp and slide the boot back to make sure its in the groove?