subframe bolts

[Phil Payne]

> NEVER, EVER, reuse ball joint bolts or nuts.  ALWAYS replace with
new
> ones.  On two occasions where I reused them, a few months and a year
or
> so down the line the ball joints popped out because of overly
> stretched/worn bolts.

Weird.  My own priorities would also be the opposite - if something
nasty happens to an engine because of a reused component, you just
have an engine to fix.  If something nasty happens to the running gear
at speed you might wind up with a whole car to fix and a damaged
family.

The cost is usually comparatively low.  In many cases (brake pads, CV
joint kits) Audi ships new fasteners in the pack.  Some alternatives
are cheaper partly because they omit these.  As incredible as it
seems, I once found a box of new, unused, caliper retaining bolts on a
shelf at a relatively well known 'quattro specialist'.  They were out
of brake pad kits - they'd put the new bolts supplied by Audi to one
side and refitted the existing bolts as a standard practice.  Why?

In my case, the left rear axle bolt on the Big Red Bus came loose, not
long after I bought the car.  I pulled it tight and discussed the
issue with Martyn Parker at BR Motorsport.  He pulled the bolt,
measured it, pronounced it overstretched and wound in a new one.  No
problems since.  One of the torque settings I check when I change the
oil.

Overall the major problem with reusing 'do not reuse' components is
that you don't know if they've been reused already.  Most of the cars
I see have cloudy ownership history and nothing like a service audit
trail.

--
  Phil Payne
  http://www.isham-research.com/quattro
  +44 7785 302 803
  +49 173 6242039