moribundman

Another Audiworlder recommended them, and I'd like to know if anybody else knows either the brand or the seller. Around $40 with shipping sounds pretty good to me. New tie rod ends are definitely in my near future.<ul><li><a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&amp;rd=1&amp;item=793085806 7&amp;category=33593&amp;sspagename=WDVW">Audi A4 tie rod ends</a></li></ul>

VAP

you can buy OTC. The company has been around for years but only recently got into the OEM business for the older Audis. Everything they off is "heavier duty" than the original stuff. They're the ones you see making heavier duty control arms, strut bearings. Usually seen at Shokan (control arms) and Blaufergnugen (these very end links in their banner ad).

I dont know of a better part, ya done good. Go for it!

qfrog@work

best ones... not sure

I like the 8e0-419-811

which dont have that rubber section, just solid metal, they also appear to have the larger ball joint in them too.

the RS6 uses them too.

dorsal900

OK, since I'm the one who told you about them I will certainly chime in. They are stamped "BAW" on the body, come in a sealed clear plastic bag with ENGLISH warnings on them (not Chinese, Turkish, etc.), had the blue plastic protectors in place, no information on country of origin. I called up TRW Aftermarket Parts and the guy I talked to said that he never heard of BAW, all TRW parts should come in a TRW box - but he admitted that he was not the final authority on this.

I'm not sure that they're Meyle, which the seller also claims to carry ("other items from this seller"). It appears that the seller copied Meyle's digram about the larger ball - same information that I got in a mailing from Blaufergnugen. Note that Blau charges over $60 each for the Meyle part.

The quality to my eye looks first rate. The screw machining and casting are excellent, the vertical size of the cast part is larger than OEM, which supports their claim of larger ball joints inside. No rubber isolator - this is a good thing. Parts fit perfectly. I do not have the technology to measure the strength of the steel, etc.

In any case, I installed them (a huge PITA to get the ends off of the tie rods here in the rust belt), had the toe reset, and there is a MAJOR improvement in the handling on my car with 84,000 miles. On inspection after removal, the old joints (the ball and socket part) were already quite loose - compare this to one of my other cars where I replaced the tie rod ends for the first time at 180,000 miles.

Overall, hard to beat this price.

t0adman2.8

...and they seem bulletproof to me.

qfrog@work

I've seen meyle ones before

the only non lemforder oem ones are in this 8d0-498 998-a kit... which is 2 nuts and 2 tie rod ends. Those say made in hungary. The vendor code on them is not familiar to me.

LMO and LME are both lemforder.

moribundman

And especially thanks to Dorsal900 who told me about this good deal! :-)

VJS

You guys are not going to like this! I know the whole story behind TRW/BAW. I've complaining to eBay for some time about the auction postings by Audicentral dot com. If you read there auction carefully it's obvious it's full of lies.

First off there is no such thing as TRW/BAW if you believe that I have a BMW/Hyundai I would like to sell you.

The company that makes BAW are and tie rod ends is from Taiwan, BAW Sheng Mhau:
http://www.baw-auto.com.tw/erou/audi.htm

Here is the list of lies on the audicentral auctions:

1. "TRW/BAW of Europe" - yeah right, possibly BAW counterfeited TRW arms.
2.There picture is really a Meyle set, then they send you BAW arms that don't have the same features. For example the integrated buffer on the top rear arms is missing on the BAW arms (small dome rubber bumper).
3. Audicentral is the largest importer of auto parts in the UAS and Canada combined. Someone that lives in Chicago posted in VWVortex that their "warehouse" is a local garage. Their website was not even up until 12/2005 and until they made their eBay feedback private they didn't have many eBay transactions either.

4. They contradict themselves with these statements: "Audicentral only deals with ISO 9002 or above Certified manufacturers." "All of our parts meet or exceed ISO-9001 standards."
ISO9001 is the tougher standard can you say you deal with ISO 9002 (lower standard) outfits and then claim all your parts meet ISO 9001?

5. The major source of our parts is the E.E.C. (European Economic Community). BS all their auction currently on ebay are Taiwanese parts.

I've complained to ebay about their lies and ebay basically said it's not their problem. "buyer beware" is what they said.

I have a set of the arms. They don't look half bad. Although I believe the casting are based on an older design. The new top front arm is slightly curved their's is staright. Also there's the missing rubber bumper.

I bought mine when they were still selling them for $374. So if they don't last long I'm not out that much. Anything has got to be better than the original arms I have on there with 100K on them. :-O

--Vic