[200q20v] count your blessings

[Phil Rose]

We tend to complain a lot (I included) about Audi maintenance costs,
high prices for dealer parts, blah, blah. But this morning I had an
eye-opening discussion with Ford service after a diagnosis was done
on our (my wife's) '96 Explorer  and save the flames, please. The
problem has been a "false" activation of the ABS while nearly coming
to a complete, easy stop--i.e. at  speeds dropping below 10 mph on
dry pavement. With this problem there is no activation of ABS light
nor any ABS fault codes. There are a couple of Ford TSBs regarding
similar complaints and it presumably involves out-of-spec sensors.
It's a common problem in 96 Explorers and I'd been previously told
that the "solution" often is to replace  *both* front hub assemblies.
Huh? Both entire hub assemblies? What about just sensors? Why both?

Well here's what I was informed by the Ford dealer: If our problem is
caused by a defective ABS sensor, then there is no alternative to
replacing the **entire** hub assembly since the sensor itself is
***not available*** as a separate part. Even if for merely a bad
wheel bearing, the entire hub must be replaced as even the wheel
bearing itself is ***not*** a replaceable item. They even went so far
as to try to convince me that _both_ hubs must be replaced at the
same time to ensure "proper ABS operation", but this was later
contradicted by a senior service tech.

So I'm looking at a minimum of about $475 and maybe double that if
the first side (hub) that we agreed to replace --based on other
symptoms--doesn't solve the problem. Essentially I'm caught in that
old "let's start replacing parts until the problem goes away"
scenario.

So, say what you will about high cost of maintaining an Audi, but at
least you get to change out ABS sensors,
wheel bearings, etc. BTW, we're doing this repair in preparation for
the transfer of the Explorer to my son, inasmuch as our second
(recently acquired) '91 200q will become my wife's car.

Phil
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Phil Rose				Rochester, NY
'91 200q	(130 Kmiles, Lago blue)
'91 200q   (57 Kmiles, Tornado red)
	mailto:pjrose at frontiernet.net