Replace Tie Rod Ends
 

While getting tires balanced, the shop let me do a good visual while up on the lift. Things generally looked good for a 11 year old car with 57k on it. I did find a dust boot torn on one of the front tie rod ends. So I will definitely replace that soon and just do both at the same time, one alignment.

- For those in the know, is there really any reason to also replace the inners as well?

I'm not having any issues, noise, etc. with the front end or steering. Looking at the Pelican DIY for this, it seems like the inners could be a bit of a bear to get out with no real benefit.
Is the inner really a big wear part like the outer?

Thanks for the input

standard issue with all cars. i wouldn't be concerned unless there is excessive movement on the inner joint or a torn boot. i haven't done mine yet, but i imagine they can't be much harder to replace that my friends R32 VW was. i believe the inner joint/boot is less subject to hard wear adverse the outer, which has to take the full force of the unsprung weight being "tied" to the vehicle through it.

I replaced the inner/outer last year. it was not bad at all. Once you get the outer out, you are 70% of the total work for full inner/outer tie rod work. Our car has a known inner tie rod noise issue (along with 996).
Mine was tight when I checked after pulled it out of the car but it was making loud thumping noise when vehicle gets warm (I was at 49K miles when this thing happened).
Once you get the outer out, you just have to get the rubber boot out and use inner tie rod puller. I could not use the tools that I rented from auto parts store, our car has odd size (metric) inner ends.
Found that the inner tie rod tool from harbor freight has the size for that inner tie rod. Also buy new rubber boot clamps if you decide to do the inner (I can't reuse the old inner boot clamp).

My logic was, it cost over $100 to get the alignment. If I just do the inner or outer and the other end decided to go, I have to spend money on alignment again.