Jeff Vader - boscoj

HAH . . . that is hilarious . . .

s4wood

Except on Bryce's A4 Avant..because he hit that berm so hard...

kaiserwilhelmi

They have a bolt head protruding from the top of the outer spherical joints that sticks up further than the stock arms...

Pat-SoCal

I think the problem has been identified, but I'm not sure what would cause that. You're in the NY area, right? Have you been taking pot holes at warp speed or something?

BoneStockS4

It was Col. Mustard in the Conservatory with the wrench...

Seriously though, I think this must be old damage that I never noticed until now. I think it most likely occured when I ran the Tracksport 600/700/touring setup with the rebound all whacky. I had the CPP links in then, and it was long enough ago that I wouldn't remember hitting any major bumps that would have done that.

If it really did happen that long ago, then I guess its ok for now. FWIW, 95% of my driving is done in a straight line on the LIE, and the LIE isn't *that* bad. I avoid the city at all costs in this car.

Maybe I'll try to get it addressed at Rojo or that place you got the ghetto widebody done They are all relatively local for me

Pat-SoCal

Some of the roads out here are so bad I half expect to see the front struts come poking out of the taxi cab's hood.

BTW, Ram's alignment on Northern Blvd. did the work on my car. They're pretty good, but I'm not sure they'd be able to weld up that gusset/support on the fender. Wouldn't hurt to ask though.

Johnny Bravo

Jeff, do you see those dents often?

BoneStockS4

Thanks for the info. Sounds like I really should get this taken care of sooner rather than later

FixedWing

That a stiff suspension alone is not going to be enough to cause this unless the hit is hard enough to do serious damage to the wheel or other suspension parts or worse.

The reason I think so is that the load is well distributed through the carrier on top of the damper. It would do major damage to that to affect these welds. I'd expect to see damage to the carrier and I'd expect to see damage to the sheetmetal surrounding the mounting bolts for the carrier. That carrier sits perfectly against the sheet metal.

Instead, I would expect to see damage like that if load were placed on those points through unusual directions -- for example, a hit to the top of the wheel or an impact to the bodywork.

One thing I wonder is is it possible that the car has been crashed ether at the factory or during shipping? If so, it might have been repaired and you wouldn't even be aware of it.

I cannot really tell from the photos but is one of the points of damage a rip to the metal? Or is it a break in the weld? If it is a weld break then I'd be very suspicious that they are cold welds. I think this is done by hand at the factory so that's always possible. I would want to remove all of the waterproofing material they put on and take a very close look at them.

But from what you've said, I am thinking that the source of the impact might be the CPP links. We all know that they bind in some way. That's why they make so much noise. Is it possible that that binding puts an high and unexpected load on this point in the bodywork? Maybe a twistng load?

Fixing it will just take work. The area needs to be cleaned and then re-welded. Given what you are seeing, I'd want to weld the entired area and not just tack-weld it like the factory did. Then it needs to be re-painted.

And to be safe, I'd want to have the straightness of the body checked before it is welded and then a full alignment performed after the work is done.

Stephen

BoneStockS4

Thanks for the feedback. Every little bit helps.