I purchased my Audi Assured 2000 A6 4.2 three months ago. Since then I have been reading this forum just about everyday and decided to go with Eibach springs and Bilstein shocks to lower the ride height. Before I took the car in I measured from the ground to to lip of the fender, which was 26 and a half inches. When the insallation was completed yesterday the shop called me with the new ride height. 26 and a half inches! As if this was'nt enough to irritate me, they tell me that my car needs a new right front outer tie rod and right lower ball joint. Based on this information I instructed them not to do the front end allignment because I would take it to Audi for these repairs. I called the salesman that I bought the car from and he assured me that this would be covered under the audi assured warranty. The dealership I bought it from is about a hour and a half drive from my home so instead I took it to my local dealer, Stoddard Imported cars. They call me today and tell me that this is wear and tear and is not covered under audi assured. My thought is that if the tie rod is bad now, it had to be bad three months ago and either way should be replaced. They disagree. On top of all of this they claim that they can't be responsible for these things since the car was lowered. Even though all the work I had performed did not lower the car even a quarter of an inch and it was just done yesterday. Sooo, $1,184.15 later I have a bad tie rod, bad ball joint, a car that is not lowered and unsafe to drive and when I talk to all the parties involved they blame it on someone else. Talk about a bad day!

 

the shocks/springs to make sure they put in the susp you bought? I think the 2000 A6 4.2 came with a sport susp stock, could be wrong... and I remember that the balljoint and tie-rod thing may be apart of a recall or TSB...(not sure for what engine-model however)

Even still, suspension work (like putting in a new susp) would not normally create that kind of failure on a tie rod or balljoint. What if you were getting a new OEM susp (like OEM sport) put in? Would they say the same things? I bet not...

Talk to regional Audi tech/rep and go from there if the service tech isn't willing to do anything.

Or at a last resort, get them replaced. Balljoints are about $100 to repl w/labor (like at a local tire store like BigO) and tie rods (ends), I'm not so sure about.

Good luck.

 

Welcome to the wonderful world of Genuine Audi service!!!