New brakes fitted and some odd findings...

[aragorn]

Managed to get my 312mm brakes fitted yesterday and spent some time today bedding them in. Unfortunately the server that hosts my website is currently offline, so the few pics i took i cant put online just yet.

Did notice two rather odd things while doing the job though, firstly, the drivers side inner CV joint bolts were all loose! I could hear a light tinkling noise on turning the wheel, and followed it under the car to the inner CV.

No idea how it'd just become loose, but i tightened the bolts back up again, probably quite lucky that didnt come off totally as i'd imagine it would have done some damage!

Second thing i noticed was that the inside edge of both front tyres was very badly worn. I changed the suspension arms back in June and didnt get the car tracked, and it killed the inside edges of the last set, so when i got some new tyres fitted a few months back i got the garage to do the tracking while it was there. The new tyres were put on the rear, and the part worns from the rear fitted to the front, and in less than two months its totally destroyed the insides of those tyres too.

Do you think perhaps the garage has made an **** of the tracking? The only other thing i can think it could be, is that the cheapy arms i baught off ebay are allowing too much movement, and the toe settings are changing between the guy setting them and the car actually driving along the road. If i wiggle the wheel from side to side, ie trying to steer the wheel itself, the wheel moves a tiny amount and the top two balljoints seem to twist slightly back and forwards...

Dont really fancy shelling out another £250 on arms, but if its going to be killing £120 of tyres every two months it looks like i'm going to have to.

 

[electricracer]

was it just tracked or properly four wheel aligned?

 

[aragorn]

Well it was just tracked with the standard laser guages, but as i've pointed out before the only two adjustments you can make on the front of a B5 are toe, and camber distribution. You cant individually adjust the castor or camber, making the cost of a full on 4 wheel alignment session a bit of a waste.

Seen as both wheels have worn equally, its not going to be the camber distribution, so either the garage simply made an **** of the job the first time round, or its the arms.

I have to say i'm leaning towards the conclusion that its the arms, they're already creaking and there is visible movement in the top balljoints when you wiggle the wheel. I'm also a bit wary of paying a pile of cash for a proper computerised alignment session, because if it IS the arms its money down the drain.

Any other ideas before i go and shove £300 worth of meyle arms on my credit card

 

[Lee Goodall]

I'd say the arms are at fault if there's movement in them. Like you said even if you get them aligned by computer and there's play in them it'll be wasted money.

 

[Siena]

I only go for OEM arms.

Outlaw was as baggy as hell at the front when I got her - she had had Meyle arms fitted 3 months before I bought her, I still have the paperwork, and was tracked the same day.

I stripped the front down, and the arms were shot! Very clean and shiny, but very dead. The 2 rear most items were so bad, I was able to push the bush centres out when I removed the bolts!

I replaced with genuine Audi items - not cheap, but you get what you pay for, I guess. Handling is razor sharp too.

 

[aragorn]

Hmm i've heard a lot of good things about the meyle arms too...

The balljoints themselves are larger than the audi ones, and the inverted one on the lower arm has apparently been designed to properly stay lubricated, as the stock arms have a tendancy for the grease to run out of the joint into the boot...

The meyle kits are £300 for all 8 arms, C links and TRE's, i suspect the audi parts are going to be double that...

 

[Siena]

Yes, Audi parts will cost more.

But, at £300 for a 12-piece kit + bolts, you can see what's happening there.
Not all those parts are required.

TRE's last a hell of a long time, Meyle tend to "make up kits", at 12+ piece kit, it sounds impressive, as it's meant to.

Just personal choice, I guess. The kit on Outlaw was a Meyle kit, and 3 months of use before failure is not acceptable.

The previous owner was an elderly man who'd had the car from new, and certainly didn't push the car anywhere as hard as I do. He had also covered less than 2,000 miles before the arms began clonking again.

 

[aragorn]

tbh i'd rather change all the arms rather than one or two, means its done and out the way, instead of spending months chasing knocks and creaks, so the kits they offer arent really all that bad value compared with buying the arms individually.

Since the ebay arms lasted all of five minutes i dont particularly want to leave any of them on there this time either, but i also suspect i'm not going to be able to afford replacing them all with genuine Audi parts. I think i'll have a long google search to see if i can find any other reports of them failing!

 

[Andy.B]

If the ball joints are not shot then why not look into polybushing the lower arms only. The rest of the arms are not worth doing but the bottom two will make a huge improvement...

Well thats my plan if my new arms from ebay go shot.

 

[aragorn]

Its the top two balljoints that seem to be creating the movement, on both sides...

also dont particularly fancy polybushes on a road car

 

[Siena]

Yes, polyurethane bushes will cause fatigue on a long road trip, due to a combination of tyre noise and other factors.

I had them on my RS2-engined B2 Coupe quattro, and though it tightened things up nicely, it was bone-jarringly hard, and not fun at all on a long motorway run, despite the fact most motorways are fairly smooth.