Mr. Z

Does JE recall (lower control arms) include a 4-way alignment?

A8CT

no, audi does not feel it's needed when control arms are changed

Mr. Z

Is a dealer really the only place to get a good alignment done?

Since dealer did a road test yesterday and didn't mention alignment issue -- and if the dealer screws up the aligment after the arms -- wouldn't they be responsible?

ex-a8drifter

transmissions at the slightest breeze, where they service a D2 as often as Haley's Comet, and treat you like a second rate citizen, they think that the freebie alone is still beyond their responsibility (only because they bill AOA).

Hey if you bark loud enough or smart enough, sometimes they do come through.

It is unfourtunate but it is a business and they do the math for the P&L on a customer. Most likely, they see an old car bought elsewhere and do not consider our cases as a loss leader

Mr. Z

If AOA pays them, I'd imagine they don't care. And I ain't too shabby at the bark loud/smart thing.

GSpence

IMHO anytime you change a susepnsion component you need to do an alignment, money well spent, trust me!

Mr. Z

Alignment isn't the issue -- who pays for it is. Dealer should leave alignment as good or better.

GSpence

Agreed. Nonetheless, a proper 4-wheel alignment becomes - and is - a safety issue after someone has swapped out a suspension component; specifically a control arm with new stiff unstressed bushings that will affect suspension geometry especially when taken into account that only one control arm is being changed and the elastokinematic properties of the equivalent bushings on the opposite/parallel side of the suspension parallelogram are not equal in performance to the new bushing. Front to back is not that big a deal but side to side it can be the difference between getting there and getting it! In short, if you're only changing one control arm, which I believe the JE campaign only allows for one lower control arm, then be prepared to a) pay to have the companion lower control arm changed AND perform a 4-wheel alignment afterwards. I'm willing to wager that failing to do so will have you back at the stealer for an alignment you should have gotten anyway and make the handling of the car under severe load, read really boogy-ing, very unpredictable at best, dangerous at worst.

Mr. Z

Dealer said both lower arms will be replaced under recall. Doing RF upper arm at indy shop first.