Front subframe replacement.

[RobDav99]

HI, I've not long bought a 2003 Octy 1.9TDI as a work horse, its a lovely drive and in good condition in general, with low miles.

 

During some maintenance I was shocked to see it has a terrible problem with corrosion on the front subframe though, I'll attach a picture below. I bought it sold as seen and stupidly didn't give it as close a look over as I should have.

 

Has anyone replaced one of these before? looking under the car it doesn't look too complicated, almost unbolt it and everything attached to it, and the same in reverse for refitting. 

 

Ebay and breakers yards should have plenty of this part pretty cheap, are they the same across all the vehicles that use this platform?

 

Any advice and insight will be greatly appreciated. 

 

Thanks Alot

Rob

[buddy]

Yes they are the same.

( I have one spare aswell ) 

[RobDav99]

5 minutes ago, buddy said:

Yes they are the same.

( I have one spare aswell ) 

Thanks for the reply. Thats good to know, should be plenty of good ones around.

 

Have you replaced yours in the past then? 

[buddy]

I did replace mine when the steering rack broke. 

 

[RobDav99]

How did it go? How much can you get away with leaving in place? Like wishbones and steering rack etc? 

 

Any tips? Cheers 

[buddy]

3 hours ago, RobDav99 said:

How did it go? How much can you get away with leaving in place? Like wishbones and steering rack etc? 

 

Any tips? Cheers 

It took me a few hours to do by myself. 

1 unbolt the drop the drop links and twist the arb upwards 

2 unbolt the 3 bolts on the underside of the ball joint and slide it out of the wishbone (on both sides 

3 loosen the bolts on the wishbone to the subframe (it is a lot easier to swap the wishbone over to the new subframe when of the car) 

4 remove the bottom gear box mount

5 undo the steering rack bolts 

6 unhook the exhaust mount 

7 unbolt the subframe. This should  come off the car now 

hope this helps 

[buddy]

A pic from when I done mine

[RobDav99]

That's very helpful. Thanks for that. 

 

Did you replace all the nuts and bolts with new when doing it? Would they be dealer only items? 

[buddy]

I didn’t replace mine as they were still in good use. 

You can get the bolts from the main dealers or of ebay 

[RobDav99]

cheers for the help.

 

I went to a local breakers yard on sunday and they are taking a good solid one off a mk4 golf for me this week so hopefully have mine sorted soon.