Alignment mystery

[TooManyAudis at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/21/2007 6:44:06 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
audi at humanspeakers.com writes:

> My  friends are idiots. 

Thanks for sharing...

> We get along  well.

Whew, that's a relief!

> Also, I don't notice any slop  in the wheel, so I doubt that it could have  
> repositioned itself  without my knowledge.  I'm wondering about the  
relationship  
> of the steering column and the Rack.  Is there anything  that  could have 
> spontaneously adjusted? 

No.  The  column is splined to the rack pinion input.

I think you need to go with  the sensible consensus here, and bring it 
back to the place that aligned  it.  It's not necessarily "their fault," 
but I figure a couple of  weeks after an alignment they did they would 
want to help you out, see  what might be wrong, etc.


Thanks Huw.
 
I'm sure they'll be more than willing to help.  I just like being  armed with 
knowledge before I take my Audi to a shop.  The  last time I was told my 
problem was a bad strut mount (due to it hanging down  while the car is in the air 
-- something we know happens on these cars with  brand new strut mounts).  
 
After a bit more careful observation, the prior problem was indeed due to  
the ball joint not being secured after an alignment job.  I had  done the same 
thing a week earlier while replacing the ball joints, so how  I did not catch 
this before bringing the car back to them to be checked is a  humiliating 
failure on my part.
 
My initial guess was that this was again the current situation, but a quick  
check this mornign revealed no such ball joint adjuster slop.  Then again,  I 
didn't check torque on the nuts, and the ball joint may have slipped, then  
crammed itself into a spot to resist further movement.  Alignment seems to  be 
ok, which is why this thing is so freakin' mysterious.
 
I'll know more later.
 
-- Tom
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