[s-cars] Re: S6 steering issues (also opening hood)

[K G Hayes]

Paul,

I've had the car about 2 1/2 years.  To my knowledge the suspension is all
stock and I don't know if the struts have ever been replaced.  The struts
have no blatant manufacturer information (e.g. large letters defining Koni
or Bilstein).  They seemed to be fine as far as the dampening function goes.
The top shock mount has Audi part numbers on it so I'll presume it's all
stock also.  The failure of the strut shaft was just below the nut on top of
the shock mount in the threads.  To look at the end of the separated strut,
I could see the bottom side of where the Allen whole was pressed in.  I took
a couple of photos and threw up a quick page since we can't attach stuff.
Click to enlarge photos and you should be able to see more than I can
explain with my observations.  The photos of the strut under the car don't
show much except that the shaft is no longer in the shock mount whole.  But
the photos of the nut show the interesting shape and color of the metal that
failed.  If you want other photos taken to look at something else I can
probably do it before I take the car in.

http://home.att.net/~kenneth_hayes/strut

Kenny



-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Gailus [mailto:gailus at mindspring.com]
Sent: Friday, December 13, 2002 11:10 PM
To: K G Hayes
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Re: S6 steering issues (also opening hood)


Kenny,

I'm curious, what brand of strut inserts are you running?
Is the top shock mount the stock setup, or do you have camber
plates installed? Also, where did the break occur on the shaft of
the strut insert--on the threads or further down the shaft?
Sorry for all the questions, but it would be good to find
a root cause on this both for you and the rest of us listers.

Paul
93 S4
95 S6

----- Original Message -----
From: K G Hayes <abiglizard at att.net>
To: <s-car-list at audifans.com>
Sent: Friday, December 13, 2002 4:27 AM
Subject: [s-cars] Re: S6 steering issues (also opening hood)


> Thanks for the replies.  The hood opened with a vice grip pulling the hood
> cable from inside the car.  pulling harder than I expected, but it popped
> right open.
>
> The cause of the accident was evident before I opened the hood.  I jacked
up
> the front end (using the Colorado Mafia method) and put it on jack stands
> (no, not cheap jack stands).  The front left wheel clunked and dropped a
> good two inches lower than the right side as I jacked it up.  Upon
> inspection the strut shaft failed near the top and was no longer
connected.
>
> When I opened the hood and pulled the dust cover off the strut area the
nut
> and the threaded top of the strut were just sitting there.  The steering
> linkage (tie-rods, ball joints) is all tight no movement, no clunks.  Can
> hitting a pot hole break a strut??  Colorado has bad roads, but I don't
> think I hit any pot holes that were unusually huge, tire eating or strut
> breaking.  Seems like a pretty unusual failure to me.
>
> Kenny (with bizarre steering modifications) Hayes
>
>
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