[A4] Bouncy, squeek.........

[Chris & Sam]

Hey all, I have a 97 Q1.8t, and two years ago I got the dreaded squeeks.  My
fix was a little " back yard mechanic" ish but it worked.  A little grease
in the right spots and it did the trick.  A needle point geese fitting, a
greese gun, silicone, some lithium greese and that was the fix.
When you look at the front susp. you'll see greese boots under each ball
fitting, well these are greeseless ball joints, ( very smart by Audi) they
dry up over time. Hence we go back and drop and good chunk of cash to
replace them.  If you want a simple fix email me at sam_chris at sympatico.ca
for some help.
It's not very pro. but it works.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "JP" <jp at tulane.edu>
To: "A4" <a4 at audifans.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2004 4:23 PM
Subject: RE: [A4] Bouncy, squeek.........


>Subject: RE: [A4] Bouncy, squeek.........
>
>Mine too! I read somewhere about adding grease fittings? I have some
>fittings but appear too long and if I drill a hole they contact the joint
>inside?
>
>Karl


Here's a repost of a useful note from a fellow lister.

JP


"
>>> Igor Kessel <kbattpo at verizon.net> 4/4/2004 8:32:05 AM >>>
Folks,
I have just installed grease fittings in the notoriously squeaky lower
control arms in my wife's car. I used the M6x1mm, 90° grease fittings from
McMaster (1105K76). They come in a package of 10.

The cap's thickness of the rear arm was 6.5mm, of the front one was 7.5mm.
The grease fitting thread was 6.5mm long so in the first case I used a small
metal washer to provide some extra clearance between the threaded portion
and the ball. I also put the Red Loctite on the thread.
It's the one that provides a permanent seal.

The rear arm allows for drilling straight up. The front one is upside down,
so I elected to drill into it at a slight angle as to clear the hub housing.
I was successful in doing so w/o having to remove the control arm from the
car, thus I didn't need to do the alignment afterwards..

I used the bottoming M6 tap #3 since there is not much thickness in the
Aluminium material, and I didn't want to drill into the ball itself to
provide the extra depth for a regular pointy tap.

So far so good. It sure beats replacing the 4 lower control arms to the tune
of $300/ea and doing a $125 alignment after that.

FYI folks, Pep Boys sells 90° grease fittings with the 0.25" thread. I am
not sure about the pitch, but given the choice I would recommend the finer
one.
I didn't buy those fittings and chose the metric ones from McMaster instead
because I hardly have any non-metric tools in my garage, much less
non-metric taps and dies.

I am CC:ing the biturbo list coz both the B5 S4 and the B5 A6/Allroad cars
have the same multi-link suspension.

--
Igor Kessel
two turbo quattros in the stable,
the third one is in the works
"

_______________________________________________
A4 mailing list
A4 at audifans.com
http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/a4