[s-cars] Ever heard of this?

[Rich Assarabowski]

Sorry to hear about that, Dave.  It could have been much, much worse,
consider yourself extremely lucky.

I just had the suspension recently rebuilt on my '93 S4, including all
new control arms, bushings, etc.  If you look at the shop manual, there
are very specific instructions regarding replacement of nuts and bolts
in various places and very specific torque requirements (e.g. car
loaded, 1/4 turn past a certain torque, etc.).  There is a tendency
among many mechanics (both amateur and pro) to ignore these factory
procedures as being superfluous or unnecessary.  Engineers usually do
not specify such requirements unless there's a good technical reason.
VW/Audi uses stretch bolts in various places and a lot of self-locking
nuts which are for one-time use only.  I would not immediately blame
your failure on Audi (remember "unintended acceleration"), but I would
be VERY suspicious of an improper installation by the shop who did this
work, especially one who did not have access to the procedures in the
Audi service manual or who would be likely to ignore them.  All those
nuts and bolts add up to a significant amount of money, it's very
tempting to ignore the factory procedures and just reuse the hardware,
especially if the shop was not charging you for the work because it was
included in the sale price.

What exactly failed in the arm?  Was it a bushing, bolt, or was a break
in the metal casting of the arm that broke?  Do you have an invoice
stating EXACTLY what parts were replaced during this procedure?  For
example, the bolt through the ball joint clamp on the control arm MUST
be a new one, any VW/Audi mechanic knows that this, or they have no
business doing this work.  From a technical point of view, I would
suggest bringing his car to an independent, knowledgeable mechanic to
inspect and document exactly what was replaced and take some detailed
digital photographs.  If the work was done only two months ago, it
should be very apparent what bolts and nuts were new and which were
reused.  Inspection of the failure should give a clue as to whether
bolts were properly tightened or not.

As far as your recourse, I'll leave that to those of the legal
profession on the list who can offer more knowledgeable advice.

-- Rich A.
   '93 S4
   '92 S4
   '83 Coupe GT

>Last Friday I'm driving to a job at about 4:30pm on the Henry Hudson
Pkwy in NYC.  Stop and go traffic.  I'm
>moving about 25 mph in the right lane when a van cuts into my lane from
the center lane (which was stopped at the >time). I hit my brakes to
slow down (no danger, plenty of time to stop) when I hear a clank and my
car suddenly
>lurches uncontrollably to the left, scraping the right front of a blue
escort along my two drivers side doors and
>then hitting the right front quarter panel of a limo in the left lane
with my drivers side front quarter panel and
>scraping along the limo's passernger side doors.  Noboby hurt, thank
god.  Turns out the passenger side lower
>control arm snapped causing the car to lurch to the left.  I've owned
the car two months (just received the title
>in the mail today).  The lower control arms were supposedly replaced by
the dealer I purchased it from.

>End result is the car is a total loss.  I don't know yet what the
insurance co. will give me for it.  I have
>nowhere to keep the car to part it out or I would.

>Anyone ever heard of such a mechanical failure on these cars?  Kind of
scary.  Thank god I wasn't driving 70mph
>with my pregnant wife or newborn son (12 days) in the car.  I'm
fighting hard to feel good enough to purchase
>another Audi.  Just though I'd share.  Any BTDT's or advice most
welcome.