Hi,

Just fitted the front of the Weitecs, the top mount "cups" are now sat about 5mm above the top of the towers on both sides....

Is this ok or not? Everything Is tight as a tiger and no loose bits, just looks a bit odd.

Can anyone who's got them fitted bang a pic up quick?

Or shed some light on something i may have done wrong?

Hi,

Just fitted the front of the Weitecs, the top mount "cups" are now sat about 5mm above the top of the towers on both sides....

Is this ok or not? Everything Is tight as a tiger and no loose bits, just looks a bit odd.

Can anyone who's got them fitted bang a pic up quick?

Or shed some light on something i may have done wrong?

Did you fit spacers between the inner nut and bearing. If you only have the inner nut that is tightened down on the bearing and rubber top mount then all should be ok.

Is this the same for both sides?

Just checked mine and they are about 3mm so i would not worry if you say all is tight..

All is tight, jack it up and nothing moves about so it looks fine.

Thing is i've just been out in it, and just as i pulled it home it started making some really bad clunking noises. No idea what though... everything is as per every other susp install i've done. And i've never had a problem.

But my god they're bouncy. A bit too bouncy i think. Good in the corners though.

try lifting the car up on the suspention mate, lift ride hight mate. it makes the ride a lot nicer.

Yeah think i'm gonna have to, it's far too bouncy for me.

I really wanna know what the clunking is though. Sounds like a spring has unseated, but they're all mint...

Yeah think i'm gonna have to, it's far too bouncy for me.

I really wanna know what the clunking is though. Sounds like a spring has unseated, but they're all mint...

did you fit the inner nut onto the bearing and rubber top mount, or did you fit the strut up into the suspension turret without it. It you did the later, then maybe this is the clunking.

How low have you gone? Should not be bouncing on these weitecs.

Edited 10 October, 200916 yr by Bowders1

yes as bowders says if you missed out the inner nut it can cause clunky.

How low are you? if you are low and havent cut your bump stops thats probably why you are bouncy.

Which inner nut is everyone talking about?The really thin one, where you have the metal platform , small rubber bush, thin nut and then big rubber cup from the Original stuff? If so, yes it's there.

A decent set of instructions wouldn't have gone a miss on these, seeing as old stuff has to be swapped onto them...

They're down on their lowest setting, which i only inteded to keep for fitting, they will be wound up tommorrow in any case. I didn't realised you had to trim any bumpstops down? Back and front? Or just the old, original real stops that are swapped over when fitting the rears?

http://briskoda.net/octavia-i/strut-shock-replacement-rebuild-information/151000/

Inner nut is item 9, and needs to be fitted. The spacer (not used on the vRS) is item 6, and should not be fitted.

From the bottom up it should go:

Spring cap

Bearing

Top Mount

Inner Nut

(Strut tower)

Top Hat

Top Nut

Something is obviously not right as mine don't make any noises, and the ride isn't bouncy. You only need to cut down the bump stops if you're lowering it loads. Get some photos up!

They're down on their lowest setting, which i only inteded to keep for fitting, they will be wound up tommorrow in any case. I didn't realised you had to trim any bumpstops down? Back and front? Or just the old, original real stops that are swapped over when fitting the rears?

Lowest setting , christ must be on the deck. You defo would be hitting bump stops. You don't need to touch bump stops on the front as they are built into the weitecs. The rear don't come with bump stops you need to cut them down by around 25mm.

My car is lowered more than most and still has 25mm from platform to bottom of the strut platform thread.

Think you need to post some pics for us to get a idea what is going on.

With the front its possible to go to low, I know a lot of people run on the lowest setting but when I had coilovers on my old mk1 vRS I had major issues with both the driveshafts and inner wing on the drivers side (UK). The driveshaft would rub against the inner wing on tight left turns taken at speed. On the nurburgring I did quiet a lot of damage to the driveshaft on this side.

Another thing to watch out for when very low is the CV joint and gater, the angle that the suspension ends up at causes the CV joint and boot to operate at angles they where never designed to and what will happen is the boot can split prematurely, and the joints can also fail a lot earlier. If you intend to keep the car very low, then expect to be replacing CV boots and possibly the joint at more regular intervals than normal.

It's all sorted now. Rasied the car up by about 20mm all round, although yet to test the ride. I will cut down the rear bumps next weekend, i'm knackered now.

With regards to the front tower tops, i'd swapped over the metal top platform rings from the old stuff which i didn't need to do. All sorted now. Cheers!

It's all sorted now. Rasied the car up by about 20mm all round, although yet to test the ride. I will cut down the rear bumps next weekend, i'm knackered now.

With regards to the front tower tops, i'd swapped over the metal top platform rings from the old stuff which i didn't need to do. All sorted now. Cheers!

Glad to here it. Still must be very low if you only raised it 20mm.

Interesting to here how the ride is now.

For GOD sake.

Right, went out in it just now, the awful sounds from before are gone, the ride is vastly better, however there is one remaining issue.

Something that bugged me during installation was that the amount of threads showing out the top of the strut towers is much different on each side. When out driver, the front left sounds to be jostling about a bit, , however, pull over and everything is TIGHT. Massively tight. Couldn't do them any tighter. Everybolt is tight on the installation, the struts are both located properly, yet one side is different to the other...

I assembled both next to each other and they both have the same things in the same place.

Pics for clarity:

Glad to here it. Still must be very low if you only raised it 20mm.

Interesting to here how the ride is now.

Its not that low really, ground clearance is good, easy over speed bumps, good half/full inch between the tyre and arches.

The first pic that nut is not right. That should be a lot more wound down. If it is tight then something underneath is not right. It looks like the inner nut must be lower on one side.

Edited 11 October, 200916 yr by Bowders1

Yeah i know, that's my quandry, yet i assembled them next to each other in the same fashion..

ARGHHHHH

Edited 11 October, 200916 yr by Keefe

You i know, that's my quandry, yet i assembled them next to each other in the same fashion..

ARGHHHHH

So you had the weitec top hat on the top spring, then you should have bearing/housing then the rubber top mount seating nice and neat over the bearing and then the inner nut. I would be inclined to remove to outer nuts whilst the car is on the ground and see if there is something that looks not right between the 2. As the shock is not coming through the turrent as far as the other side it is that side that is the problem.

Either the shock is inpinged on something like the weitec top hat, helper spring platform or they are different shocks, or the rubber mount has shifted of center to the bearing, or the thread at the top of the shock is stripped so the nut can't go down further.

God that is bugging, You may be able to undo the top nut and remove the ARB link to let the strut down low enough to see what is up?.

Defo problem here is the inner nut not being on far enough.

I'd drop the entire shock out again and strip it down and see where the problem is.

I remember when i fitted mine at first i ended up with a shock looking like that and i hadn't wound the inner nut down far enough.

dont forget when winding the inner nut on to take all the tension off the spring pushing up on it which makes life a hell of a lot easier.

For more reference when were saying inner nut we are talking about the 1st nut you put on the shock that sits on top of the small metal plate ontop of the spring. This nut needs to be wound down as far as possible.

Dave

Yeah i reckon the entire things coming off again tommorrow after work. I'll just have to take it steady tommorrow, the thing only rattles over potholes/speedbumps and my journey to work has neither.

Pretty annoying but oh well. Cheers.

ive had a look at mine as I didnt put the nut on top of the bush before putting it on to the car, I have never had any trouble, so long as it is all seated correct you dont need that bolt, Ive looked at it and cant see what diff it makes as the bush is always compressed slightly anyway, all it could do is keep it all together when the car takes off?

but ive had mine off the floor on stands and nothing has ever moved.

all I can think it does is make the threads on the top shorted.

ive had a look at mine as I didnt put the nut on top of the bush before putting it on to the car, I have never had any trouble, so long as it is all seated correct you dont need that bolt, Ive looked at it and cant see what diff it makes as the bush is always compressed slightly anyway, all it could do is keep it all together when the car takes off?

but ive had mine off the floor on stands and nothing has ever moved.

all I can think it does is make the threads on the top shorted.

Billy you are partly correct but without that inner nut as the rubber mount is nice and new then it is probably doing a good job keeping things straight and in place, but when it wears you will start to get movement between the bearing and mount as no nut is holding it in place. Then you might be stating a different story.

Rgds

Mark

rgr that mark cheers,

I am gonna get some new ones just in case as I didnt have tools with me to get the originals off when I went home. but meens that the std stuff is ready to go strait on a car as they were only on for 2 yr n a month or 2 and the mount looks pritty new.

Did anyone else have a bedding in period where the new rubbers or something squeaked like hell for a while?.. Or do i get the feeling this is another woe to be experienced.

They squeak so loud at slow speeds, a rubbery squeak from front and back. Maybe a does of suitable grease would aid?

Did anyone else have a bedding in period where the new rubbers or something squeaked like hell for a while?.. Or do i get the feeling this is another woe to be experienced.

They squeak so loud at slow speeds, a rubbery squeak from front and back. Maybe a does of suitable grease would aid?

Nope! No squeaks or greasing. What the hell is up with your suspension!

Can you get some in-arch photos of the front and rear suspension so we could get a better idea? Or maybe someone who's already fitted could pop over and see you to get a better look.