rskelme

During an oil change last week I found my front outer CV boot was torn. Wasn't thrilled about it but what can you do. Picked up the repair kit from the dealer on Friday so I could fix it over the weekend. On Sunday I tore it all apart, trashed the clamps, threw out the old boot and degreased the CV joint. It was at this point I realized the kit I was given was for a different car. Everything was just small enough to look right but have no chance of fitting. Needless to say I was pissed. I dug the old boot out of the trash and fortunately had zip ties on hand to clamp down the old boot (even though it still had a giant hole in it). Put everything back together and pretended I didn't just waste my Sunday afternoon.

It gets better...

Today on my way to work I experience a horrible idle as I'm coming to a stop. I keep the RPMs up so the engine doesn't die and I travel three blocks to my office. Pull into the parking spot and the idle is fine. Work the morning all the while pondering what the hell just happened to my car. Head back to the dealer on my lunch break to get the right part and the car felt great the whole way there. As I pull into the parking lot the horrible idle returns and I'm pleasently surprised to find a solid brake pedal as I'm pulling into the parking spot. In a mild panic I grabbed the e-brake before coasting into the customer parking sign.

I headed inside and got the correct boot kit for a nominal additional charge (big discount because they screwed up) then go back out to my car hoping I'll just start it up and everything will be fine like in the morning. No such luck. At this point I'm thinking how ironic it is that it broke down at the dealership and more importantly how expensive it will be for them to fix it. Fortunatly I recently met a fellow S4 owner who happens to be a Mercedes tech and within five minutes on the phone we find the brake booster check valve is broken! I popped it back in and put a few zip ties on it and I was back on the road. Tonight I'll be treating it to a nice JB Weld case hardening.

I've had the car for almost a year now and aside from the coolant temp sensor going these are the only issues I have had. I'm just fortunate these have all been cheap repairs but they say these things come in threes so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. In the meantime I'll be brushing up on my "common problems" knowledge.

Thanks for the minor rant,

-Roman

S4gasm (LoTR)

sucks you had to put it all back together with the torn boot, nice to have another car u can drive in case **** like that happens.

rskelme

I live in a condo and can't wrench in my parking garage. I was working on borrowed property at the time In hindsight I could have put the control arms back on and pushed it out of the way but I was too pissed off to think rationally at that point.