VAP

I only got 6 orders off my last post so I'm unable/uncomfy in ordering 50 pr to get the $220 price point. I ordered 26 pr and got half the discount that ordering 50 would've saved me. So I''m going to throw this out there one more time and anyone who commits (I dont want money at this time) to buying a pair will get the special $220 per pair price. All orders received after midnight Sunday, July 28, 2002 will pay $249.95.

Details:

Payment Info: credit card or PayPal. I will split the PayPal fees with you, ie: 1.5% each. No add'l fees for CC's. I wont ask for any money up-front nor deposits, I take you at your word. "Order all ya want, buy all ya order"... fair enough? When your control arms are ready to ship I will email interested parties and give you a total price with shipping and add'l fees if applicable. Soon as I have your CC info or when PayPay sends me confirmation of payment I will ship your control arms next business day.

Shipping: Shipping costs on these have been hovering in the $12-$14.50 range for UPS Ground rates.

Since there was insifficient interest to comfortably order these at 50 quantity I'm unable to hold this price forever. Thefore I will still have them available for sale but at $249.95 per pair direct or thru Ebay.

If interested, please post any/all tech questions here as others may want to know the answers too. Any/all non-Audi related or "off-topic" questions should be discussed in email to me.

I will have a new shipment of arms in next Wednesday ear-marked for a Aug, 5 shipping date.

Dave R.

How quickly could you turn around a pair of lower arms if, they are sent to you? I have less then 20k miles on my 01 model and would like to have them done, but can't afford to be without the car for long. Also do you offer any trade in on low mileage arms for your new modified ones?

Thanks,
Dave

Scot W

My local dealer just spent two days trying to rid my '00 of suspension squeaks, glad it was on their dime. (Even managed to stump the regional Audi service advisor who traveled in from Detroit to help.) They had quite the cool tool with all kinds of sensors placed all over the car that they used to isolate where the sound was coming from. Seems like you have the solution.

Electronics are my thing so unless this is a pretty straight forward install (hand tools, some pneumatic) I would probably have the dealer do the swap. Any thoughts on how many hours are involved with this project?

VAP

Audi using 3 different manufacturers over the years (that I know of) and maybe more and 4-5 different manufacturers making them for the OEM market. Every time I do a new (different) set I have to start from scratch, go off production line, essentially custom-making each one. To do any control arms other than the OEM maker I'm using takes 4 times as long as every aspect has to be made individually, for that particular manufacturer's control arm.

Also there's the problems with warranty that will enevitably raise it's ugly head. I modify one persons used arms and they were too far gone and still make noise, or worse, fail. I have to eat them or at the very least do another pair for them. I can't afford to re-do arms that fail after being done. It hasn't happened yet but the possibility/liklihood is inescapable/inevitable... like a hard disc crashing or a motorcycle rider falling, it's not a quesion of "if", but simply "when" and how often.

I'm sorry, I wish I could do this but I need to know I'm making something that is BETTER/safer than what it replaces, not fix (possibly or real) already damaged/broken arms. There's too much potential liability at-risk here.

12V A4 Phil

What kind of time frame are you looking at to have units available?

Dead

I've wanted to ask you this,what happens to yours when someone puts a grease gun to 'em?

Back in the "day" grease would ooze out the bottoms of the boots.

Your set-up looks like it would blow the boot off.

VAP

the ones that make all the groaning/creaking noise. You only need one left/one right.

I shipped out 4 remaining pair I had in stock today. My next shipment will arrive next Wednesday and I will get them done over Aug 1-4. They will be modified/shippable on Aug 5 and I should have plenty available from that batch.

VAP

Initially on all the arms I did that were R&R'd from existing cars then modified and re-used on the car they came off of I had to replace both upper and lower rubber boot retaining rings with insulated safety wire. This is adequate for retaining the boot but could rupture the boot on subsequent re-lubes with vigorous grease gun over-filling. Now I've found a special tool that allows me to remove/re-install the lower stock boot retaining ring. This allows for re-using the stock lower rings and a safety valve against overfilling. If overfilled the retaining ring pops out of it's seat and lets extra grease escape well before rupturing. It's a little "fiddly" and tedious getting it back on by hand but can be done without special tools. As long as the arm is noise-free there's no benefit to re-greasing as the existing grease within the ball is still doing it's job.

The cool thing is that not one single arm I've put the zerks into has started to squeak/groan again and one pair has over 75k miles on them and most pairs I've done have 35k-55k miles on them. Now while that in and of itself is nothing special or less than we'd expect on a control arm from Audi it must be remembered that these were arms that had already started to squeak... and that at 50k+ miles the squeak has not returned. I started doing this in 1998 on a few cars after testing it on my 98 A4. I'm still running the pair I repaired with zerks in 98 and the noise hasn't returned. They may never need to be re-lubed so the potential for the boot issue may never arise.

I do completely purge the low temp stock grease from these arms before refilling them with Redline CV-2 that doesn't melt/flow till 800+ degrees. The stock grease in these arms melts, turn liquid and flows out of them at just over 100 degrees. And I put plenty grease in them after purging the old grease to provide continued long-term protection before sealing the boots back up.

Hope this helps

Dead

...with the holes plugged and the zerks loose.
That way the owner can unscrew the plugs and insert the zerks if needed and it'll keep overzealous oil change guys from blowing the boots.

VAP

But the quick-lube fast-oil-change places do. But to-date no one has tried doing anything with mine in over 4 years. However I would recommend anyone who has these buy their own grease gun for $10-$12 and a cartridge of CV-2 from Redline and do their own... but not until/if it's ever needed.

The problem with removable ones is that they really need to be sealed-in with LokTite Red or they leak when filling them. Even LokTite blue leaks. Remember that grease gun is operating at 2500 psi when it's putting in grease. The sealant makes R&Ring them very difficult.

Another possibility is to just remove the fill-nipple from the threaded zerk body (a 7mm wrench is all that's required to remove them) then leave a push-on female rubber cap on the threaded zerk body or a small push-in plug to seal the hole where the fill-nipple screws into. That way no one could fill it. I'll look into this further as it wouldn't cost but a few cents each.

But like I said, in over four years it's never happend to me or the other cars I've done, nor have they ever needed re-greased... yet.