tph216

Well, I had it done & picked up car yesterday, £888 all-in. I'm not sure they actually are Sachs as the itemised bill listing parts, for the shockers, started with the code MONR, which perhaps could be Monroe? But anyway, it all feels good, great in fact. I'd forgotten how smooth & comfortable the ride had been, as I guess over time you just get used to the gradually reducing ride quality. The front's so quiet I now notice a similar minor squeaking/creaking coming from the back occasionally, so perhaps the back are similarly affected and I should get those done as well in the short-medium term.

I've found a garage today that specialise is VAG and who sound trustworthy and like they know what they're talking about. They priced up the job and when I asked about brands & quality said they'll use Sachs parts, which from googling sounds reasonable & acceptable to me. Much better sounding than the chain eventually suggested. They quoted basically £800, including collection of the vehicle from the chain garage, supply & fitting of the 2 front springs, electronic shocks and associated parts (all Sachs or equivalent). Equivalent quote from the chain was £1100 to supply & fit likely cheapest/nastiest parts only. And not much confidence from me that they'd do a good job if it. So it's a no brainer now to have this indie VAG specialist do the work instead. Has anyone any experience if Sachs suspension parts?

I didn't realise that DCC front LHS damper was a common/known problem. Wonder why that is? Mines had reported misting advisories from when it was just out of warranty. Then it's been noticeably squeaky grin about 6yr old. It's now 8.5yr old & the coil snapped. Rest of the car has been mostly great all that time. Barr an issue with coolant tank cracks a couple of years ago (again a known/common problem & manufacturing defect, apparently). This is the first car I've ever bought from new, spec'd exactly as I wanted it, and I intend to keep it until it conks out completely. I had in mind that would be at at least at 20yr old (2036). So it would be nice to think that perhaps I could get the front suspension fitted out with parts that will last until then.

I pressed the chain a bit more on what brand shocks they'd fit. The guy said "oh it'll just be a standard OEM equivalent, probably Starline or something like that". I'm not at all clued up on these things so I don't know whether that's good or bad (hunch is probably bad). I was tied up in a work course on Wednesday & Thursday, hence being put on the spot and having to agree to the recovery taking it to Kwik fit. I'm off today though, so probably going to try and find a better garage in Leeds to do the work. After a bit of research I was thinking perhaps asking whoever I go with if they could supply & fit Bilstein B4' and Eibach springs (or at least recommend something at a similar quality level). I'd much rather pay a couple hundred more now for parts that will last, than get whatever crap the chain fit for £1100 and then maybe have to have the same done again in a couple of years. Just trying to find a reputable VAG garage or two in Leeds now to ring around.

Yeah it felt it. I never know if garages are ever open to taking on board customer suggestions of what spec parts to use. I always suspect they probably roll their eyes and think "awkward customer incoming". 😕

Yeah that's why I'd like to have all 4 done in one shot. The shock absorbers have been misting on and off for years, so I've been a bit sceptical of their quality for a while. I've never had another car do that and drive pretty tamely/cautiously. So I'd be keen to get a better set installed rather than matching OEM.

Interesting, that's a long list of parts! Is that everything that's needed to replace the shocks + springs, or covering additional stuff as well?

I have a 2016 superb SEL with DCC. Had to call breakdown recovery today - 50 miles from home - as one of my front coil springs broke. For context it's 8.5yr old with about 75k on the clock, and at my last service had advisories for minor coil corrosion & some light misting (to the nearside front and rear wheels). The recovery truck took it to a local garage chain (which rhymes with stick bit), who are quoting almost £1100 to replace just the 2 front springs, shock absorbers and surrounding parts that it's best to replace at the same time. My local independent who do my servicing quoted £780ish for all 4 springs to be replaced (without the shocks), but I've asked them to quote again with those included as well. Do those prices seem reasonable? When speaking to the chain I felt a bit dubious as I said it was a lot of money and asked to be emailed a breakdown of the parts & labour quote so I could understand what exactly was going to be done - the phone line was very muffled & his accent difficult to understand - and he made up some excuse about the part supplier not being able to give prices until an actual order was placed!? And he also said something like "the springs cost over £200 each and you'll need 2 of them". I'm accepting it's going to be a rather large bill to replace all four springs + shocks, but I'd rather get it done well with quality parts so they'll last longer this time round. With that in mind, are there any particular parts I could/should be asking my local independent to quote on, rather than just leaving them to choose OEM or whatevers cheapest? I feel like my local will do a better job and I'll take the transport cost on the chin to get it to them, if I'm gonna be spending well in excess of £1k. I don't really want to rush to agree to the chain doing just the front axle for m £1100 as I'm sure they'll just use the cheapest lowest quality parts. Apologies, I'm not that clued up on the mechanics/parts involved, hence coming here for some friendly advice. Anyway thanks in advance, all input will be much appreciated. 👍

This looks useful too. I somehow missed this thread when I searched here recently.

Definitely won't be trying to fix it myself. Mostly I just want to get a little clued up about what the issue might be so I at least have some understanding when I take it in to the garage and they try to explain why I need to pay xxx pounds. Looking online I see it might be around £500 to get the water pump replaced, so I'll brace myself for that kind of hit & cross my fingers that its not more than that! Will definitely get it booked in somewhere asap.

Thanks Danoid, that's been really helpful. At lunch time I refilled the coolant to minimum level & had the engine idling for 15-20 mins whilst I looked for where the leaks were coming from. I came up blank on location, but I could see below the car that there was a slow drip onto the road. The temp had just gotten to 90C by the time I'd finished looking. I've just gone back now and looked more closely (and with a much better torch!!) in these specific locations (with the engine off this time), and found: - Top right location - there's a small pool of coolant there, obvious its been leaking from there. - Bottom left location - no evidence of a leak there at all. The reservoir has held much better than this morning, with the level down only perhaps 2-3mm. So I guess the leak is much worse when the car is actually moving. (Unless there are additional leaks elsewhere then) I don't think my leak is as bad/obvious as this one in the video. In the video I can see lots of pink in those two areas and quite a pool on the plate at the bottom of the engine bay, whereas the plate at the bottom of my bay is clean/dry.

You know I can't actually recall the cambelt + water pump being changed as yet (at least from service paperwork). That would be a significant bill wouldn't it, I'd definitely remember if it was. :S I've read some horror stories of garages changing all sorts of parts in pursuit of leaks, costing multiple thousands in total. Had been assuming taking it to a main dealer might be best bet to avoid that, but perhaps they're just as much a risk of that as any garage?

I have a MY2016 1.4TSI SEL estate with about 55,000 miles on the clock, and I appear to have a coolant leak (first one ever - and I've owned this car from new). The car has was (major) serviced & MOT'd very recently (early December). Services during warranty were with the Skoda dealer and then subsequent services were with independent local garages. In the recent cold-snap over christmas break I'd left the car in a multi-storey all day whilst shopping and on return the red coolant warning light was on. The outside temperature was -5C but felt much colder, and as an aside I'd also noticed that the fuel cover had started failing to open as well. We were in a rush & needed to get home asap with a young baby, and I put it down to the very cold weather & it maybe being sensor issues, and drove cautiously home anticipating that the warning would probably go away once the weather had warmed up. We used the wife's car mostly over the holidays instead, but did take my car out a few times to drive short trips (<5 miles, 30-40mph max, with a keen eye on the temperature gauge which never went above 90C). One of those trips the heater began blowing cold, and after that I stopped using the car. When I got back after that I checked the expansion tank (it was virtually empty, but looked as though there was coolant still in the outlet pipe from it). As it was xmas break I couldn't get it into the garage I usually use, so left it idle until this week. I topped it up this week with Comma Xstream G40 - it took about 1L to get it to the max line - and then I immediately drove to drop the child off at the childminer's about 2 miles away. Was parked up for 10 mins there and then when I restarted the engine the red warning light was back (it was +9C outside that time). I drove the 2 miles back home again cautiously & again temp gauge just about got to 90C by the time I was home. Noted the heater was now blowing warm again. At home I checked the expansion tank again and the level was back to virtually empty. Looking around the engine compartment I couldn't see evidence of any leaks anywhere. Nothing on or around the reservoir itself. I'm about to take it into either the main dealer or the garage who did the last two services, but just wanted to see if anyone had experienced anything similar or could hazard a guess as to what the the issue is likely to be? Any & all ideas/advice much appreciated. Thanks in advance!