I have no complaints about my '98.5 Avant, a year old now, but I'm curious how the control arm problem manifests itself, and whether it's been fixed by any parts improvement.

Thx.

I can't provide all the info you request. What I can say is my 98A4Q has had one replaced and will have onother one replace this week. Both are only for noise. There are no other symptoms whatsoever. I spoke to the service manager about this and he seemed to candidly indicate there is a sizeable problem with these things needing replacement but again for noise or clunking sound (mine creak when cranking the wheel off center while parked). Hope this helps, I know of no other problem. BTW my car only has 19kmiles on it.

P