NefMoto

had a scary night tonight after work...

hint: change out stretch bolts, they are "1 time use" only

Someone's lower balljoint nearly fell out.

its weird going through a wide left turn when all of a sudden, you have to turn the wheel much more than normal and you're like wtf? then the car starts bouncing around sideways like the front end is on a huge slab of Jello, then you are in the next lane somehow ???...Time for some grade 8 hardware instead of used stretch bolts...

Looks like the wrong bolts were fitted in the first place.

this is what they were, from ECSTuning

this happened to a customer of mine where he tightened the bolts over the required spec and the bolts snapped on the road

Yeah  - Junk, might as well be made from mud.

You can see what the factory bolts look like in this pic:

(http://i.ebayimg.com/t/VW-GOLF-MK4-GTI-LOWER-BALL-JOINT-L-H-C279-/08/!BycLJuwEGk~$(KGrHqN,!hkEw5Fq8G4CBMRwTqPygQ~~_35.JPG)

There is nothing wrong with stretch bolts if you know when and when not to reuse them. And especially if you know how to treat them and have a human torque wrench in your arm/brain.
Most VAG stretch bolts can be reused many times, including those three you had problem with. Though those you show in pic from ECS are not VAG bolts.
I've reused those three bolts atleast 6 times.

I always use new flywheel and clutch bolts since I don't want a FW or clutch flying into the cabin, most other I reuse. Hey, in some applications you can even reuse headbolts if you dare.

edit: and ofcourse I always use new centre bolts for hubs. (very high torque bolts)

Hey, I remember those.

They are still recommended to be only used once, which I used mine more than once. so double whammies for me. The nut plate is supposed to be thrown away also. It seems the middle bolt unscrewed it's way out and fell, then the other sheared or cracked at the nut. I've learned my lesson with axle/hub nuts and now with these. I'm just going to use new hardware from now on. I'll sell all my old stretch bolts to Axis for the low! lol  I drive this car hard all (seriously alot) the time and I'm really fat(like 350ish lbs) and this is the driver's side so I should probably walk more and get good hardware.

I don't think I've ever relied on bolt on ball joints. I've welded a few into random overbuilt gocarts, but never actually ran one on a 3000lb vehicle.... How do you sleep at night?!

I sleep well usually, what are you implying here?

Vw uses bolts, many other manufactures use bolts, are you saying you would weld the ball joints in? I guess I'm just confused on what you are trying to communicate.

What I'm implying is that when I'm unable to steer my 3000lb vehicle. I immediately check, replace, and loctite every nut and bolt even semi related to suspension and steering. Dude, I'm nuts. I do dumb stuff like it's my job. I can't sleep at night cause a burnt fuse made me jab poke and scratch my head like my high school girlfriend... Neither were pretty, and lead to heavy drinking...

But yes, I have fabricated mounts, modified original parts, had them machined usually to use YJ wrangler hardware. Sanel machine shop in Concord got used to me over the years....  Pressed in, and spot welded. It'll outlast any type of abuse it'll ever see on the road here in New England.

I seriously didn't mean to stir up any animosity. I'm new here.. I'm an intense individual to converse with... Give me a few months, you'll chuckle more than you get pissed... Or tell me to beat it.

no animosity, just didn't understand what you were trying to say.