aftermarket 90q front ball joints-are they crap?

[Roy Wendell]

I'm comparing the new Meyle front ball joints that I just received from 
that place in Wisconsin to the original ones that I just beat out of 
the control arms and I'm not at all impressed. They say "Made in 
Germany" all over them but that doesn't make up for the fact that they 
are not the same quality. The top of the ball stud was faced off 
against a rather rough grinding wheel rather than machined but more 
importantly there is no serration on the face of the mounting pads 
where the bolts go through. Now I'm sure that Audi wouldn't have gone 
through the extra machining step to serrate the originals if some 
engineer hadn't done the calculations to determine that the loads 
required it. I'd rather not have to go back the alignment shop and pony 
up another $50 the first time I whack a pothole and the ball joint 
slides out of place. I looked at pictures of the Febi and TRW ones on 
the APW site and it appears that they aren't serrated either. Is this 
something that I have to get from a dealer? I'm used to the German 
aftermarket parts being right but apparently that's no longer the rule.

Roy