Dealer says A4 needs new $1600 Ball joints every 30k?!

[Tyson Varosyan]

The Seattle PI posted an article in the paper about some lady that has 30k
on her '98 A4 and had a dealership tell her that she needs $1600 ball joints
and that is standard maintenance for this car. They went on to say that the
A4's have badly designed ball joints which can only be bought with the
suspension arms which is why they cost $1600 and that 30k is about avarage
lifespan for them. According to them the problem was fixed in the 2000 model
year...

Reason I ask is that my dad is looking for a 96-98 A4, on my recommendation,
and called me up all freaked out about this article. He has bad memories of
his Fiat that really did need new ball joints every year...

The whole thing sounds like a bunch of crap to me. I know quite a few people
that have this car, never heard anything about ball joint problems. And the
price itself is suspect to me. For $1600 the damn things better be made out
of Titanium or something...

Is there any truth to this?

Tyson Varosyan
Technical Manager, Uptime Technical Solutions LLC.
tyson at up-times.com
www.up-times.com
206-715-TECH (8324)

UpTime/OnTime/AnyTime