CanuckRS4

Stealership indicated today that my inner tie rods need replacement to fix the creaking i hear when reaching the limits of wheel turn to the left (in my case). They blame this of course on my having lowered (moderately IMO) the vehicle and this is putting undue stress on the tie rods. Of course they said both the inner AND outer should be replaced because you just never know what the future may hold.
Contemplating options at this point.

Dealer#1: Replace steering rack - under warranty
Dealer#2: Replace inner tie rods - non-warranty (~$800)

daveak05

does Stasis know about the "stress on tierods" thing? I wouldn't laugh it off, it makes perfect sense.

RoninWheels

have they diag'd the tierods?..meaning_ have they said what is wrong with them?

daveak05

as they are permanently compressed to a certain degree. It also changes the alignment of the tierod to the control arm.

It's the bushings that are affected adversely in many cases. If the parts were not designed to accomodate this, then not good.

Jet Jockey/A4 Pilot

Some other dude on here.

Give it a break Dave. First of all aside from the DRC (POS) on this car, most of the suspension components on the RS4 are the same as the A4 and S4 so if there are any problems because the suspension is lowered then a lot of A4s and S4s would have this problem. So why even mention STaSIS when all aftermarket suspensions kits from all manufacturers would cause the same problem.

The way I see it Dave you have two choices IMHO, remove the STaSIS name from your post or include all the other aftermarket suspension kits in your post.

I'll say it again; <b>there are no better aftermarket suspension or brake components for an Audi out there then the STaSIS stuff.</b> After all I should know I went through 3 different suspension set ups on my car and countless brake set ups to know what's good on these cars.

Do you think a non modified A4/S4 or RS4 are not required or need for tie rods to be replaced? Do you think any A4/S4 and RS4 are not required or need for a steering rack replaced?

Also since there have been different ride heights available through different stock or OEM A4s suspension options in the past, wouldn't that cause Audi's own suspension to cause problems? I don't think so! People that lower their cars properly usually won't lower them that much lower than the Audi suspension ride height and what little difference there is won't affect the suspension components to a degree that a dealer claims it would. One poor chap on the A4 forum was told by a dealer that is rear diff problems which needed to be replaced (out of warranty) were caused by is car being lowered... Please give me a break!

Think again Audi dealers have those components in stock which means they are changing frequently enough for them to keep them in stock and I'm sure most Audis are not modified so these components are being replaced and installed on regular non modified cars.

In the end it sounds to me like it's your typical Audi/dealership BS to cover their asses.

CanuckRS4

the inner tie rods succumbing to the excessive forces put upon it by a lowered vehicle seems ridiculous to me. The car is lowered probably (i don't know exact figures) 1 1/2 inches perhaps and translating this to angular degrees where the tie rod meets the rack seems almost inconsequential.

I agree with you that this is typical dealership bs trying to suck money out of a quality customer.

I was actually prepared to pay for the repairs out of pocket after a telephone discussion while my car was on the hoist. But of course when i got back to the "stealership" this phone quote didn't include labour, alignment, taxes and whatever else the figured they would throw at me. I told them to forget it as they were trying to milk me. Great way to make sure I never visit them again, idiots. Oh, and of course i was charged a "diagnostic" fee to have someone look at the vehicle to figure out the problem since it wasn't a warranty item in their opinion. Great customer service.

And the inner tie rod creaking was diagnosed by the mechanic turning the wheels and another guy keeping his hand on the tie rod. They said they could feel the vibration during this maneouver at the inner tie rod end. Sounds fairly logical to me.

Plan of attack: I'll be visiting the original dealership that wanted to replace the steering rack and see where we can go from there. At least they weren't fretting over my Stasis suspension, which is light years better than factory.

RoninWheels

Jet Jockey makes a good point about dealers in his post.

From their point of view... everything aftermarket is bad and will damage the vehicle. This obviously not being the case with the DRC. The reasoning is money... when a dealer sees a vehicle come in with aftermarket parts with an issue... and they can somehow link one to the other whether it is the cause or not, that is what they will blame.

Dealers usually have a logical repair process which means: If they see something around/related to the location etc. of the complaint/issue and it is aftermarket.. then it must either be put back to stock.. or they blame it on the aftermarket part.

My main point is what is the final diagnosis? What did they find wrong with the tierods/control arms? your statement about them makes sense but it is only an assumption until they actually prove their case.

daveak05

but that's not entirely unreasonable on the dealer's part, under warranty.

If the same situation and the car wasn't under warranty, the dealers would be happy to fix any problem they feel a mod caused, at owners expense.

If a failed item was completely unrelated to a mod, then they shouldn't balk at repairing under warranty. That's not really the case here.

daveak05

First, is what I said in my 2 posts untrue?

Second, I mentioned Stasis because that's the kit he has, so it's relative.

I've actually come around to having a more favorable opinion of Stasis Ohlin setups for the RS4. Yeh, the rash of DRC failures has closed the deal for me. And there's no doubt it's a killer suspension.

Two areas would still be of concern to me, tire rubbing and related suspension pieces failure. I haven't been convinced that those two problems never occur.

Let's say, for example, 20 in 100 lowered cars need new tierods, controls arms or steering racks after 30k miles. And maybe 2 in 100 stock suspension cars need the same repair. The point is that the incidence of failure is higher with a lowered suspension, and you know it. It's the risk you run and the price you pay.

You make a good point about A4's with stock, sport, and ultrasport suspensions. I don't believe they go as low as the Stasis and the different shocks and springs are Audi OEM and tested by Audi before making it into the design. So, it doesn't follow that Audi would design a suspension that would cause failure on its cars, using their pieces.

Audi has in stock and is selling suspension replacement parts for higher mileage cars that need replacement and the occasional incidence of failure due to material defect, would be my understanding.

It may be typical Audi dealer BS, but there is a correlation between lowered suspensions and added stress on control arms, tierods, and stabilizer bars. Don't try and say otherwise.

JMSIV

Lowered cars are driven in a different manner than the entire population of cars. Your stats are biased by this (lowered cars in general are driven harder). I am ignoring the speculation. Jet is right - thousands and thousands of cars of all kinds are lowered. You don't see companies selling uprated tie rod ends with the kits do you?

The dealer saying that the tie rods have failed due to modest lowering of the car is idiotic.