Steering Groan update...

[Phil Rose]

At 8:20 AM -0800 1/3/05, Bernie Benz wrote:
>Tom,
>
>Whats to groan about, unless you are driving parking lots all day?
>I purposefully left the acoustic filter out of my 5 year old, $20. hose
>rebuild, and since I only notice the pump noise when parking or slow speed
>turns.  Not much worse than the stock hose.

I think Bernie's joy with his 5 year-old $20 rebuild might be a 
classic case of "thin-wallet syndrome". Since he's saving himself 
about 10 cents per day over the past 5 years by using that rebuilt 
hose, I suspect he might hardly notice the noisier operation because 
he's managed to convince to himself that it's "not much worse than 
the stock hose".  Well, perhaps that's true, but IMO the pump with 
"stock hose" is not noisy at all.  Perhaps I have unusual Audis, but 
neither of my cars makes noticable "groaning" noise during normal 
driving--including slow-speed turns (with the exception of the 
full-lock situations which, taking Bernie's advice, I try to avoid). 
Both of my cars have the oem hoses with the restrictor tube 
(silencer).

I don't think Tom paid well over $100 to get the equivalent 
performance of a $20 rebuild, however "tolerable" that might be. 
Anyone driving in urban (and suburban) areas needs to make slow-speed 
turns all the time unless they're in the habit of running through 
stoplights and stop signs, etc. He's well-justified in complaining to 
Shokan, especially if the part they supplied turns out to be not 
functionally identical to an authentic oem hose. Even if Shokan 
agrees to refund the cost of the hose, I wouldn't let them off so 
easy. The installation/removal job is a pain, and I'd request that 
they pay for labor cost, too, assuming their hose is shown to be 
missing that internal component.  Of course there is that matter of 
the part number discrepancy (if that could account for the problem 
with the hose, although they claim it's not the case) since they 
might say that it was Tom's obligation to verify he had the correct 
part before installing.

Phil
-- 

Phil Rose
Rochester, NY
mailto:pjrose at frontiernet.net