Front spring change in <15 minutes? Story of Saturday

[Breezy_Pete]

Hehe, I came across this youtube vid and thought "nah, I won't bother taking the bearing housing right off, too much to undo and put back, I'll do it this way even though I've struggled at it before, must've just been bad light and unfamiliarity with the job"... He does it in less than 15 minutes on the video, surely I can manage it in an hour?

 

Getting the old strut with a missing top coil out was hard enough, involving some brutality and funny angles, but with the new full-length spring there was no way I could drop the opening of the bearing carrier low enough to get the new damper into it. Cursed it, and hammered it for a while then dejectedly had some lunch.  Thought about it and re-watched part of the video to check whether I'd missed anything, but no, he didn't release the driveshaft or the wishbone from the balljoint... Was heard to yell "LIAR" at the screen as the strut just 'fell' in and out the bearing carrier...

 

After lunch I soon realised that undoing the balljoint from the 'bone would give me the extra few cm I needed, and it worked out pretty well, despite the obligatory seized screws in the little triple-nut thing. Luckily I had spares of both. By the time I was cleared up it was about 3½ hours.  

 

Looked back at the video again to triple-check how he'd done it, still no wiser; then I read the second comment, from a fella called Paul Chawner...  

 

"Nice Video, however if you are changing the spring on the other side, the drive shaft is longer which makes removing the strut more awkward. No matter how hard you belt the hub the hub physically wont go down far enough to clear the strut. The longer driveshaft bottoms out on the wishbone. ( I kept bashing ten bales before I realized something was wrong). "

 

Looks like the video method only works for a nearside spring! *******.

 

 

Edited 8 January, 2018 by Wino

[TMB]

Yes, the driver's side is harder due to the reason mentioned. Did you not know that?

Edited 8 January, 2018 by TMB

[TMB]

Funny how he gets the top nut on and off the piston rod without having to use something to stop the piston rod turning.

Edited 8 January, 2018 by TMB

[JWvrs25]

Always makes me cringe a bit watching those autodoc videos. A while ago i was watching the one about replacing the dogbone mount, there was no mention of replacing the stretch bolts or torquing them up properly. Just wind them up with the impact gun which is not much fun when they end up snapping or stripping the threads in the gearbox further down the line. 

Im not sure who they aim these videos at as most home mechanics dont own these professional tools, and if they do i'm not sure why they need a video to show them the procedure.

Always the way with youtube videos about stuff, "you just undo this bolt and it comes apart like this". Yeah right when the ****er is seized solid and won't budge, takes about 10x as long as the videos show

[sepulchrave]

16 minutes ago, TMB said:

Funny how he gets the top nut on and off the piston rod without having to use something to stop the piston rod turning.

 

I use a rattle gun, comes off and goes back on a treat.

[Breezy_Pete]

23 minutes ago, TMB said:

Yes, the driver's side is harder due to the reason mentioned. Did you not know that?

I remember the driver's side on my Polo being a bugger; even with ballpoint disconnection, but that was my first ever on this platform so I didn't expect it to be easy. Just didn't realise why the video method made it look so easy...

Other side should be easier!

 

[TMB]

1 minute ago, sepulchrave said:

 

I use a rattle gun, comes off and goes back on a treat.

 

Ah cool. I don't have a rattle gun.

[TMB]

Just now, Wino said:

I remember the driver's side on my Polo being a bugger; even with ballpoint disconnection, but that was my first ever on this platform so I didn't expect it to be easy. Just didn't realise why the video method made it look so easy...

Other side should be easier!

 

 

Yes, passenger side is a lot easier.

[Breezy_Pete]

Me neither on the rattle gun front..

@clarendon462, yeah I cringed at all the fastener re-use and lack of torquage. 

Edited 8 January, 2018 by Wino

[Breezy_Pete]

Oh, and another thing...everything on the video is so spotlessly clean and rust free!

The sodding clip holding the brake pipe onto that little bracket probably took me the whole 15 minutes to get off without destroying it.

So rusty! The bracket was about 3 times as thick as when it started life, the clip merged into it like they were one!

Splurged a few quid in advance on a new bracket and clip for the nearside, in case it's even rustier.

Will update next Saturday. Hopefully there won't be much to tell.

[TMB]

16 minutes ago, Wino said:

Oh, and another thing...everything on the video is so spotlessly clean and rust free!

The sodding clip holding the brake pipe onto that little bracket probably took me the whole 15 minutes to get off without destroying it.

So rusty! The bracket was about 3 times as thick as when it started life, the clip merged into it like they were one!

Splurged a few quid in advance on a new bracket and clip for the nearside, in case it's even rustier.

Will update next Saturday. Hopefully there won't be much to tell.

 

I have spare new brake hose clips if you need any Pete.

[Breezy_Pete]

Ta, but they should be on their way to me soon.

 

One of the biggest problems I might have is persuading the missus that I should actually do the other side, when "it doesn't need it, it hasn't broken?".

Original spring and damper, I think it might be wise...

[TMB]

Tell her I did all four of mine

[Breezy_Pete]

 No.

I do have some spare rears ready to go, will wait for the first one to snap though, to force the issue. Rear shocks are recent.

[TMB]

Cool. Back ones are a doddle compared to the front anyway.

[Breezy_Pete]

Yeah, I reckon even I can't **** those up.

A bit surprised they are both still intact TBH, she often carts loads of gear about in the back seat and boot. Not to mention holiday loading.

 

[garethw]

Unless you tow or continuously overload it, the fronts will break quicker than the back IMHO especially with a diesel.

However hard I try I can;t justify why all the ones I have seen go break at the top on the front....

I know the back ones break at the bottom because of corrosion.

When one has gone you just know the other won't be far behind.

[Breezy_Pete]

My Polo front one broke at the bottom. FWIW.

[garethw]

8 minutes ago, Wino said:

My Polo front one broke at the bottom. FWIW.

I am just awkward then.

[lupoluke]

Only watched about 5 minutes of it and that was enough for me. 

 

Just so your aware you can buy a proper hub spreader tool rather than using a chisel, I’ll grab a pic if anyone’s interested. 

 

I normally whip the outer cv joint Nut off and bottom ball joint bolts out and they practically fall out.  

[Breezy_Pete]

Oh yeah, I had the tool for that. Needed a touch of modifying to work well the first time I used it.

[rum4mo]

I think that I forgot to remove the hub spreader the first time I used it, what an idiot, no damage done though!

[Breezy_Pete]

^  I do admire a man who admits to his mistakes.

[ConorVRS]

Best to replace springs in pairs usually, and the 3 bolts that hold the bottom ball joint to the wishbone can slightly affect the tracking of the car so I'd take it somewhere to check its not out of alignment (its usually better to take the one big nut off and remove the lower arm ball joint from the hub). Pretty sure the 3 bolts are also one time use? Maybe the same with the backing plate. 

[Breezy_Pete]

Thanks Conor. Doing the other side this coming Saturday. Those three bolts are a fairly close fit in the holes, so I'm not worried about the tracking, but yeah, it probably is better in that respect to just do the one big nut. Might try that on t'other side, if I need to undo anything.

 

I did replace all bolts/nuts and the triple backplate thing, one bolt sheared off in it, all three of those bolts were horribly rusty, must remember to go back and grease the protruding threads of the new ones while I'm working on Saturday. I think they may not have been changed last time that side got removed (not by me, but a local VAG specialist who did the outer CV boot for me not long after first buying the car, 6 years back).

Edited 10 January, 2018 by Wino