Hey guys, I was hoping you might be able to give me some input on a couple of newb questions. Being new to Audi's (BMW e30 guy here) I am just not sure what is "normal" for these cars. I have a '98.5 A4 with the 2.8.

Front end: I had the 120,000 mile service completed about 2k miles ago, which was suppose to include an inspection of the front end, and no problems were found. Now I have clunking over bumps. How long to control arms/tie rods last in these cars? The left side was last serviced 14k miles ago, the right side about 4k miles ago.

A/C: Sometimes blows hot air, but after a minute will go back to blowing cold again. Is this normal?

Cooling system: I also got a new radiator installed just 2k miles ago. Last night I was doing a lot of idling in 90 degree heat and my oil temp ran up to 250, my water temp about 3/4 of the way to H. Is this too hot, or within normal specs?

Thanks again for the help.

 

#1 searching would give you the answers to all these.....

Front end- yes thats the symptom of bad control arms.

A/C - have not heard of the problem, but I guess if its really hot out, any system will blow warm air for a short time until cool air makes it to the cabin.

Long as you don't reach the "hot" level, you should be OK. Although most do not go up that high unless its like in the 100's, but certainly things will run hot is no air is cooling the system because you are idling.
Mine only goes to about half way when its really hot, so you may want to check the fluid levels, or possibly even try to bleed air from the system if the levels are OK.
Its probaly OK though.