As some of you might have read in my other thread, I'm having problems with my outter tierods. The car is a 2001 A6 2.7T.

I would like to get everyone's opinion here: I've now replaced my outter tierod ends twice. To my amazement, they are gone again. After only a couple of weeks of extremely light driving!!! I've so far only replaced the tierods with aftermaket ones. Now, I'm being told that it is in fact a common problem with A6 2.7t's and that the ONLY way to fix it is put on the original parts that can only be purchased from the dealer.

(amazingly enough, if you can get the dealer parts at dealer price, they actually end up being the SAME money as the aftermarket, so I do agree that it was mighty stupid of me to not have bought them rightaway. Especially, since it could've saved me all this aggrevation...)

conversely, there is the follow up question: if you believe that it doesn't matter which parts you get - original or aftermarket - could something else be affecting my outter tierod ends to the point that they give in within a week or two?

 

Yea, they fail often. The quality of the part will determine how long it will last. If you use cheap parts they will fail again.

Stock is good, you might also want to try the Mylee upgraded ones, or just move to solid ones.

 

if tey are failing that fast replace the entire tie rod assembly.

 

What about this "heavy duty" one here:

http://www.ecstuning.com/stage/edpd/...gory=Tie%20Rod

It says that they are redesigned to last longer, but I'm not sure anymore whether its just marketing BS or for real...


and thanks, guys! I've looked for a while through the forums and couldn't find much on this subject, so keep your responses coming on this one.

PS I've google'd Mylee, but came up dry, can you beam me a link?

 

i only use oem. or direct from the manufacturer parts.

 

I used OEM the last two times and those came waaay too close to each other for comfort... guess, I'm just going to go with the manufacturer ones this time. Cross my fingers...