Are you ready for my the next episode of what can go wrong will?

[chain_slappins4]

ok gents and ladies,
shall we recap the events of the last few weeks...

5 weeks ago, motor finally shit the bucket.. I was prepared for this and had preparations in place.. fast forward to 2 weeks ago, motor swap was a sucess.. baring a few broken connectors... swap was started Wednesday night and was completed Saturday morning... we go to start and there is a high pitched whine.
, coming from the driver side bank... that was over 4 hours to remove the manifolds and fix the first mistake....then after that.. I take the car for a nice drive, and 150mi later the rack blows.... So That gets fixed....

so now I'm reprogramming the modules I the car, and thevoltage in the battery gets low... hook up the charger... set it to 12v and it sends 16.8 Volts to the system and fries the ecu.....( this was Saturday night by the way)...

now today.... I take the South to a local indy shop for an alignment.. they do their thing, I pay the bill and I think all is good.. well.guess what.... it wasn't good... I get 50ft put of the shop and the God damn front wheel falls off the car.. the lower ball joint punctures the rim... and the rim got jammed in the fender well, and ripped up the fender.. the shop accepted 100% and will fix the car.....BUT WTF man... I donot think I mm could take another issue.....





Sent from the S that used to tap

[Concavitor]

Persevere. Ask for more from the gods. Never ever give up.

[Gosser]

Sorry to hear about all your misfortune. But why did they remove the wheel to do an alignment? At least they are taking full responsibility for the repair.

[jdmnomore]

Oh man bro ive been there. Nothing you can so but suck it up and enjoy your drink of choice. When its all said and done drive like a grandma and enjoy your car dont total it like i did lol.

[Kambesama]

ok gents and ladies,
shall we recap the events of the last few weeks...

5 weeks ago, motor finally shit the bucket.. I was prepared for this and had preparations in place.. fast forward to 2 weeks ago, motor swap was a sucess.. baring a few broken connectors... swap was started Wednesday night and was completed Saturday morning... we go to start and there is a high pitched whine.
, coming from the driver side bank... that was over 4 hours to remove the manifolds and fix the first mistake....then after that.. I take the car for a nice drive, and 150mi later the rack blows.... So That gets fixed....

so now I'm reprogramming the modules I the car, and thevoltage in the battery gets low... hook up the charger... set it to 12v and it sends 16.8 Volts to the system and fries the ecu.....( this was Saturday night by the way)...

now today.... I take the South to a local indy shop for an alignment.. they do their thing, I pay the bill and I think all is good.. well.guess what.... it wasn't good... I get 50ft put of the shop and the God damn front wheel falls off the car.. the lower ball joint punctures the rim... and the rim got jammed in the fender well, and ripped up the fender.. the shop accepted 100% and will fix the car.....BUT WTF man... I donot think I mm could take another issue.....





Sent from the S that used to tap

Dam man. STAY STRONG!! The lugs weren't tight on the wheel?
When I do alignments I don't usually remove the wheel cause its a hassle just to jack it up on an alignment rack.

[chain_slappins4]

Dam man. STAY STRONG!! The lugs weren't tight on the wheel?
When I do alignments I don't usually remove the wheel cause its a hassle just to jack it up on an alignment rack.

I was in need of new shoes, but I didn't want to spend 1200 on a new set until I got all the wheels redone... so they had a set of continentals with like 3k miles on them, so i had them put those on I the meantime... I mean for 200 bucks, you can't go wrong ..... boy was I mistaken....

the guy claimed he used a 100ft lb torque stick on the wheels... a little bit more then what's supposed to, but 10 ft lbs isnt going to make the wheel come off like that.... I didn't even get 50ft when I noticed something wrong... I hooked a quick u turn and headed right back to the shop... and that's when she let loose....

im just glad I wasn't doing 70 or 80 on the Parkway headed home.... that would have been disastrous......

but thank you for all the kind words everyone... I'm not giving up on this bitch just yet

Sent from the S that used to tap

[chain_slappins4]

well here's a little tide bit of information I just found out... after going through everything with a fine tooth comb, it turns out the front sub frame support to sub frame mount failed on the drivers side, in turn causing the front sub frame mount on the drivers side to fail, ( now I'm guessing at this next part, because there is no logical explanation, but I'll post a picture of what I have left and you can make your own opinion), now with the sub frame dropped, it put an insane amount of stress on the wheel hub, bending and stripping the lugs ( I have a picture of the lug... it's rather impressive actually ), causing the tire to loosen then come off and jam up into the fender well... how is that possible you say?.. after staring at a hanging sub frame and suspension at audi for 2 days, it kinda hit me like a brick.. the jackass ( there's no other word for him ) that put together that side, used the old bolt, instead of the new that I gave him, and zipped both of them on with an air gun.. instead of using a torque wrench and doing the 81 ft lbs plus the 1/4 or 1/2 turn.. he stripped the two God forsaken bolts and it was just a matter of time before it all came apart... the threads in the hub were all stripped, I didn't think to save that, but I do have everything else..... it just makes me sick to stomach to think this all could have been prevented.... now I don't know who's to blame , but the owner of the alignment shop is still taking care of the damage.. his comment to me was " i looked at the camera, and the tech only went around one time with the gun, where as on the other 3 wheels, he went around twice "... go figure... there really are some good people left in this world...

Sent from the S that used to tap

[SprintBlueWorld]

Whoa. Several forms of strange luck goin on. Have you visited your astrologer lately? At least no one got hurt. Only thing more expensive to fix than an Audi, is a person.

[badger.]

damn crappy luck - But! good on the shop; there are many horror stories where the shop refuses to fix the issues they cause or just make it such a PITA to get it taken care of. So at least you have that going for you.

[Brettannica]

I'm not giving up on this bitch just yet

Spoken like a true S4 owner.

Stay strong brother

[chain_slappins4]

mechanically the car is fixed.. only thing left is the body work and to have the rim painted body color... now the only problem is I was real sheepish driving it to work this morning... almost as if I'm nervous something else is going to happen... I know everything is sound with the frame and suspension, I went over everything twice with the audi tech ( he was a good guy... had a lot of patience lol). I dunno man.... can't explain it

Sent from the S that used to tap

[TarlCabot]

the sub frame is loosened and moved (most likely) during wheel alignment

the shop that did mine did NOT torque the bolts back properly and ended up getting the "shaft" on that deal because the subframe was moving all over the place

[TarlCabot]

well here's a little tide bit of information I just found out... after going through everything with a fine tooth comb, it turns out the front sub frame support to sub frame mount failed on the drivers side, in turn causing the front sub frame mount on the drivers side to fail, ( now I'm guessing at this next part, because there is no logical explanation, but I'll post a picture of what I have left and you can make your own opinion), now with the sub frame dropped, it put an insane amount of stress on the wheel hub, bending and stripping the lugs ( I have a picture of the lug... it's rather impressive actually ), causing the tire to loosen then come off and jam up into the fender well... how is that possible you say?.. after staring at a hanging sub frame and suspension at audi for 2 days, it kinda hit me like a brick.. the jackass ( there's no other word for him ) that put together that side, used the old bolt, instead of the new that I gave him, and zipped both of them on with an air gun.. instead of using a torque wrench and doing the 81 ft lbs plus the 1/4 or 1/2 turn.. he stripped the two God forsaken bolts and it was just a matter of time before it all came apart... the threads in the hub were all stripped, I didn't think to save that, but I do have everything else..... it just makes me sick to stomach to think this all could have been prevented.... now I don't know who's to blame , but the owner of the alignment shop is still taking care of the damage.. his comment to me was " i looked at the camera, and the tech only went around one time with the gun, where as on the other 3 wheels, he went around twice "... go figure... there really are some good people left in this world...

Sent from the S that used to tap

ive never seen a shop that didn't go back over lugs with a torque wrench for proper tightening... wth ?

i would check... most likely replace every bolt/lug myself and torque them properly... this is the kind of irresponsibility that will get someone killed driving down the highway and a wheel falls off

[Kambesama]

the sub frame is loosened and moved (most likely) during wheel alignment

the shop that did mine did NOT torque the bolts back properly and ended up getting the "shaft" on that deal because the subframe was moving all over the place

I haven't done it yet but to adjust camber during an alignment the subframe needs to be loosened and moved around for a blind adjustment right?

[chain_slappins4]

I haven't done it yet but to adjust camber during an alignment the subframe needs to be loosened and moved around for a blind adjustment right?

yes... only way to adjust camber on our cars us to loosen the subframe, unless you get adjustable upper control arms...

Sent from the S that used to tap

[chain_slappins4]

ive never seen a shop that didn't go back over lugs with a torque wrench for proper tightening... wth ?

i would check... most likely replace every bolt/lug myself and torque them properly... this is the kind of irresponsibility that will get someone killed driving down the highway and a wheel falls off

when it was at audi, the service manager and tech were kind enough to let me check everything with him... ( twice ), from front to back every bolt and nut on the frame and suspension was checked and torqued... they were such good guys ( or felt bad for me ), but neither one of them would accept a tip... I even offered dinner and drinks at their place of choice... still declined.....

even though I know the car is mechanically sound now, on the way home tonight I hit about 75 or 80 , felt a shimmy and hit the breaks so hard I was lucky no one was behind me... it's going to take a while for me to get the nerve back up to drive the car the way I used too.. I almost contemplated selling it...

Sent from the S that used to tap

[TarlCabot]

unless you replace your oem upper control arms with after market adjustable ones, the only way to adjust that is with the sub frame (and not very much)

your wheel probably got bent slightly... that would cause your shimmy, totally understand your feelings toward your car

it took me about a year before i first launched mine after all the work i have put in to her, but still don't trust her to take to road ATL with my friends or roebuck...

[chain_slappins4]

unless you replace your oem upper control arms with after market adjustable ones, the only way to adjust that is with the sub frame (and not very much)

your wheel probably got bent slightly... that would cause your shimmy, totally understand your feelings toward your car

it took me about a year before i first launched mine after all the work i have put in to her, but still don't trust her to take to road ATL with my friends or roebuck...

I know for a fact my rim isn't bent like that, the camber was dead nuts between both rear tires before I had the coil overs in the rear installed... so looks like it's going back to audi for the rear

Sent from the S that used to tap

[chain_slappins4]

ahhhhhh I just love my luck... here I am yet again, stuck on the side of the road... it seems when the shop replace the hub ( the one that was all stripped ) the reused the old bearings ( which I didn't think was possible) , and I guess you figure out what happened... I was coming off the rt 9 bridge and saw a spark shoot out the drivers side wheel... made a right at the light and the sound of fucked up bearings was everywhere. so here I sit, waiting for a tow that will surly scratch the shit out of my front bumper... I'm so pissed off at this point I'm speechless

Sent from the S that used to tap

[SprintBlueWorld]

Noooo!

[chain_slappins4]

and it's now 11:30 and both tow companies didn't want to do the tow because they said the car was too low..... it's only a fucking inch and a half lower then stock

Sent from the S that used to tap

[badger.]

when it rains it pours...

things have to look up eventually, right? Hang in there.

[Ryanroland]

Start a GoFund me account or post your paypal address. I'd send you a case of beer! I'm feeling frustrated for you brother. I know that feeling of wanting to just get rid of a car, but it sounds like it's pure incompetence by some select mechanics. From what you're explaining 99% of this wouldn't happen if things were done the right way.

Maybe Garage Squad or Mike Holmes (yes I know he does houses) will hear about your story and want to make it right.

But seriously, I got a 20 spot for your troubles. The Audi community is unlike any other, and I think I would stick it out just because of the awesome people out there who understand and willing to help out.

[chain_slappins4]

Start a GoFund me account or post your paypal address. I'd send you a case of beer! I'm feeling frustrated for you brother. I know that feeling of wanting to just get rid of a car, but it sounds like it's pure incompetence by some select mechanics. From what you're explaining 99% of this wouldn't happen if things were done the right way.

Maybe Garage Squad or Mike Holmes (yes I know he does houses) will hear about your story and want to make it right.

But seriously, I got a 20 spot for your troubles. The Audi community is unlike any other, and I think I would stick it out just because of the awesome people out there who understand and willing to help out.

thanks man, i really do appreciate the words of encouragement. and you 100% right about the audi community. someone I met on here not to long ago, who im proud to call my friend, was helping me pull the motor out of the donor car, when he found out my back was fractured, he did the entire motor pull himself, without asking for anything in return. yes the audi community is like no other, people whom I've never met in person have offered to help..

I'm happy to say, I am keeping the S, and also right that 99% of the shit that happened would not have happened if shops would pay attention to the small details.. for example, I just got the car back yesterday evening.. the body shop that fixed the fender and the front bumper left the car filthy, beside that, the wheel that was supposed to be painted to match the others didn't match ( small stupid shit) but what really pissed me off, I get on the highway and the car starts to shake at 60 mph, the never rebalanced the damn wheel.. i mean come on, how many times am I going to bring it back for stupid crap? when I called the shop owner this morning and told him, his response was " that's not a big deal, that can wait till Monday or Tuesday " really? wtf!! I understand he shelled out a boat load of money to fix the car ( 5100 to be exact ), but you would think he would go over everything with a fine tooth comb before calling me and saying my car is ready, come get it...

Sent from the S that used to tap

[Mr. Corey]

Sorry to hear about all your troubles and the awful damage thats happened to your car because of a shops negligence. My rule of thumb is if you want something done right you have to do it yourself. Its a 99% guaranteed that shops suck and attention to detail just isn't there! good luck!