Dave A

In a letter from Tim Harris, on Greg Nichol's site, he tells of getting his ball joints replaced for free by the dealer.

My '83 has the alu ball joint brackets, I've already ordered the replacement steel ones but if I could get the replacement and alignment done by the dealer I'm going for it.

Has anyone else had success with the dealer doing this as a recall and does anyone know the recall number ?

TIA - Dave
<img src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" border="0" alt="[cheers]" />

Jessa

I recently contacted my local Porsche dealer (Sonnen) about this for my 82. After waiting a few days for them to check with Porsche, I was told that it is was not covered and that there were no open recalls for my car. I'd still check, since your 83 might be covered.

Dozman

What years would that recall be in effect for??

John D.
'85 928 Auto, Black

Dave A

Thanks Jessa - I'll call my dealer tomorrow and see.

The recall would be for cars built before Sept 1983. The change was made with vin 92ES860404

John V

I too saw that post on Nichols site. Being in the same area (Boston) and still having the aluminum joints, I called two local Porsche dealers a while back and asked quite a alot of questions. Clair Porsches' service manager actaully called me at home and we spoke for almost an hour. Very nice guy, proffesional and attentive.. (cudos to Clair).

He has also seen the post and researched my car as well as any known ball joint recalls. He found nothing to suggest that this recall ever existed. I tend to beleive him just becuase he seemed real knowledgeable and eager to help. The only advise I'm not sure about is that he suggested not changeing out the alumimun joints unless they had something wrong (play or obvious defect). Porsche did not acknowledge or recognize any safety or quality issues with the aluminum joints.

After reading Wally P's posts on the subject and respecting Wally's documented knowledge of our cars, I'm kind of reluctant to accept that position. If anyone has any more on this, I'd be real interested.

jpitman

I am about to do my ball joints Al-&gt;steel, but I spoke to me hometown wrench on it when I last saw him. He laughed, and said he tells all his 928 customers with Al joints to do them asap. Many have said they'll wait till they show signs of wear, looseness. Eventually, almost all of them have called in a panic when the joint failed catastrophically, frequently with spouse in car. Many have got away with little or no collateral damage as they were moving slowly, but some suffer fender, suspension damage. He has done joints on 30+ cars so far, in Melbourne, Oz.
FWIW
jp

Mike Schmidt

[quote]Originally posted by John V:
<strong>The only advise I'm not sure about is that he suggested not changeing out the alumimun joints unless they had something wrong (play or obvious defect).</strong><hr></blockquote>

I've heard of a few people having the aluminum ones fail. Luckily those failures occured at low speed. If you take this guy's advice and at high speed "they had something wrong", you might not be able change them. I suppose your next of kin might be able to do it then though.