TORQUE ROD REPLACEMENT

Pictures please.
What tolerance do you speak of, I am pretty sure you aren’t going to be able to see any movement by hand on a good one.

 

Metal to metal is violation. They aren't that expensive.

 

You sound like you already talked yourself out of replacing them. So wait until they get worse and replace them later.

If there is no movement, they will be fine.

They are also tracking rods, not torque rods.

 

When you do decide to replace use the dealer part, especially if they lasted 1m miles. Had a similar situation with a 96 Toyota that needed control arm bushings. Toyota did not sell just the bushings, only the complete control arm. Aftermarket bushing kits (Moog) were about $400 cheaper so I went that route. Original bushings were 23 years old and about 300k miles. A few weeks ago had it on stands for oil change and tire rotation. One bushing was split bad, only after 3-4 years and about 15k miles. So now it has to come apart again and also have alignment. Aftermarket parts rarely ever worth it.

 

Freightliner sells bushings that are not rubber but instead a composite that does not crack from being exposed to oil and sunlight.

 

I would agree that aftermarket is often not a good deal however there are some companies that are undoubtedly offering better products that oem for considerably less money. The trick is knowing which ones are good and bad. I am surprised you had that bad of a problem with moog but I will say that rubber products in general are troublesome anymore and I would honestly doubt an oem Toyota one would last as long as the original….but would like to think more than 4 years