2002 Audi A6 4.2 (Misleading title, not the ball joints, just the boot that keeps the grease in)

Both of my lower control arms ball joint boots have ripped, they are almost new and barely even have any road dust on them, the rubber even feels new.

I took my front tires off to re-lube the brakes and replace the brake piston caps and they were completely fine, next day took my car into Firestone for an alignment because it even looked off (it was pretty far off).

I'm working on getting rid of fault codes:

17831 - Secondary Air injection system; Bank 1; p1423 35-00 - insufficient Flow.
17819 - Secondary Air injection system; Bank 2; p1411 - 35-00 - insufficient Flow. (Biggest PITA I've ever dealt with)

And noticed the boots were torn when taking off the secondary air pump so I could open it up and clean it out.

Has anyone even heard of this? I've replaced dozens of control arms and to have both sides tear at the same time seems really suspicious. They were ordered from Blauparts a little over a year ago and I only have 6000 miles at the most on them.

Any input on the Lower control arms or the Secondary Air injection system would be great. The hose going from the air intake to the Secondary Air Pump isn't cracked but it does have play in it, not the rubber hose but the plastic connector piece that you turn to set in place on the air intake box.

 

I replaced my arms with Mehle parts 2 years ago and they are still fine, 25,000 later. Now, the Blau struts have made noise starting the winter after I installed them. Going to use Koni STR's. The secondary air hose is probably cracked near the fire wall. This is the hose from the air pump, front of car near headlight and runs to the back of the intake. I learned the hard way and and had Audi do it. It looks to be an easy job.