Hi,

 

Just had car serviced and have been informed that the "rear suspension level sender drop arm " is broken. Quote for almost £200 to replace it.

I gather that this sender controls the automatic headlight leveling ? (HID headlights)

Questions .....

 

where is it located !  could the drop arm be repaired ?

could I get one (where from) and is it a DIY job to fit ? or get local garage to fit it.

Will it cause an MOT failure ?

 

Grateful for any help,

 

Lloyd

On my 2010 vRS with xenons the headlight level sensor was at the front I think. More detail about your car model and age may help with advice provision. 

20 minutes ago, phoneman(ret) said:

Hi,

 

Just had car serviced and have been informed that the "rear suspension level sender drop arm " is broken. Quote for almost £200 to replace it.

I gather that this sender controls the automatic headlight leveling ? (HID headlights)

Questions .....

 

where is it located !  could the drop arm be repaired ?

could I get one (where from) and is it a DIY job to fit ? or get local garage to fit it.

Will it cause an MOT failure ?

 

Grateful for any help,

 

Lloyd

You can change this DIY, it's only held on by a couple of bolts and an electrical socket to disconnect. As where to get another one apart from the dealer I have no idea, but be very careful when you put the new one on as it's easy to put the moving arm that connects to the suspension arm on the wrong way. There is a thread on here with this exact topic. 

Easy DIY job but you'll be comfortable if the car is reasonably high off the ground

 

Location is on the inner end of the left hand rear suspension arm, with the partner one on the front left the level of the vehicle is determined...

 

As above it will be on your rear left hand side

Hi Guys,

 

Excellent !!! These posts could be saving me £££ !

Thank you all and love the blue springs & yellow (shock absorbers ?) in Wiilydogs photo (a photo is worth a 1000 words ! nice to know what the thing looks like)

 

I shall have a look and see what is broke ! The drop rod looks to be metal (wouldn't think that is broken) but connected to a bit of plastic/nylon (more likely to break). Thought about making sure the electrics are OK, switch on headlights (ignition on possibly) and move actuating arm to see if they move up & down, probably only a small amount.

Sender & bracket held on by socket screws, removing it will make repairing/replacing the arm easier. Hopefully, I won't have to look for an actual replacement !

 

Lloyd

 

Looks like the flush arm from a toilet cistern!  (I'm sure a bodge might fix it in an emergency)

Hi,

Thanks Golf-Fiend, that's exactly what I thought it looked like ! They are quite tough, usually nylon and I have a spare hiding somewhere.

 

Need a pit as too old to be crawling about under cars ! Or could get local garage to remove & replace for some ££s. Still a LARGE saving from getting a new one fitted - keeping fingers crossed.

 

Lloyd

This says it is for mk3 Octavia but looks very similar.  If you can look at the part number, a replacement might be able to be sourced at reasonable cost without improvising on a repair.

 

Worst case,  you may be able to use the arm if your proper part can't be sourced at reasonable cost.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rear-Front-Left-Right-Suspension-Level-Sensor-VW-Golf-MK7-Passat-B8-3G-Touran-5T/162248438715

 

Edited 17 March, 20179 yr by TheClient

This happened to me. The bracket snapped from the metal arm where it fixes to the car. I tried a glue based botch but it was too awkwardly broken so I picked up a second hand sensor, took the arm of that and it was easily fitted. I found a whole sensor including arm on on eBay for 35quid and sold the armless sensor back on eBay for a few quid less.

Had a look today and found the metal arm had snapped just below the ball joint (nice bit of corrosion !) why not make the drop arm out of nylon/plastic like the sender leaver ?

Now to take car to local garage to get it off - can then decide if repair possible. 

Hi,

Thanks again to all that replied to my post.

 

Took car to garage on Tuesday and they removed lower bracket and broken ball joint from sender arm.

Got them home and found upper ball joint had rusted and the plastic housing had snapped.

Measured distance between centres of ball joints (70mm in my case).

Found that ball joints were 6mm (lower one was pressed into bracket and had to be drilled out).

I build towing electrics testers for the trade (keeps me off the streets !) and had a look on the websites that I buy components from.

Found some 6mm ball joints (which cost a little over £6) and fastened these together with some 6mm threaded rod and locknuts.

White substance on the joints is silicone grease (actually heatsink compound) on reflection probably didn't it !

Adjusted ball joints to give 70mm spacing and locked nuts (note 180 degree orientation of the joints).

Fastened lower joint (nylock nut) and took car back to garage, re-assembled in a couple of mins.

While car was up on ramp, found front level sender (left hand side) and checked the joints, OK.

Garage wan't even going to charge me ! (have had rear discs changed there last year) so I gave them £10 for the "tea club" !

End !

 

Lloyd

 

Edited 2 April, 20179 yr by phoneman(ret)

Excellent work!! Hopefully the description of your repair will help others out in the future.

You might need to get it hooked up to vcds to make sure the basic settings on the xenon module are still right. I found the light dance on start up wasnt happening with mine after the breakage and on checking vcds the settings were missing and needed recalibrating...