Is the shop I went to wrong?
This is a pretty old shitty looking car. It’s a 2008 nissan altima 2dr I bought a couple years ago for 1800$. it had tons of issues (and still has quite a few lol), but I was a broke highschooler so I bought some tools fixed it and got it safety certified etc.
Now recently I notified my inner tie rod starting to go. I replaced it and the old one was pretty shot, surprised I didn’t notice earlier. Anyhow, after replacing it the steering was off + it had bump steer. I thought this would all be fixed with an alignment, but the shop I brought it to told me it couldn’t be aligned. They said something was bent but couldn’t tell me exactly what. I spoke with the tech over the phone he told me to just drive it as is until it dies.
The car has ~175k km 15-20 of those being by me. I am fairly confident that drivetrain still has a couple years in it with my use habits and care.
Anyhow looking by at the attached pictures, does it seem like the outer tie rod is bent? I struggled to take it out and may have damaged it in the process. Is there a chance these guys are just idiots? I gave all that context because I have a suspicion they didn’t give the car a real look and just saw how far off toe was and the shittyness of the car and gave up.
TLDR: Is this outer tie rod bent?