Evening all. Day out today for the better halves birthday. Leaning on the backend of the car I noticed it moved into the suspension quite easily. Could easily make it move an inch or two with little or no rebound damping. I know a bit about bike suspension setup and I wouldn't expect this from the front or rear of a mountain bike.

Are my rear shocks dead or is this normal?

What is the age of the car and what sort of mileage?

Late '14 (64) and just over 41k. Far too low in my experience to be needing any sort of shocks doing. Bushes maybe. They can go in a snap if in bad conditions. But modern shocks should last a lot longer than that no?

Only had the car since October and can't confirm the usage prior, but the condition suggested it had been looked after.

Edit: should have said it's a 2.0tdi wagon. I know that a wagon has different springs.

Edited 24 March, 20188 yr by MarkyG82

Might be worth cleaning off your rear shock absorbers to get the shock absorber model number, spend 7 euro on Erwin and pop your vin in. 

 

Have a a read of my posting - however if out of warranty have a harder time than me getting it resolved. 

 

 

Thanks @Rybu79

Spent some time looking through your info. Looks like there are quite a few issues in various ways.

Sadly out of warranty so all repairs are on me. Don't mind 'upgrading' to bilstein b4's but can't afford to change all four corners and swapping out the rears is relatively easy.

Would the improved damping at the rear-only bring out the faults in the front sooner rather than later? 

Just now, MarkyG82 said:

Thanks @Rybu79

Spent some time looking through your info. Looks like there are quite a few issues in various ways.

Sadly out of warranty so all repairs are on me. Don't mind 'upgrading' to bilstein b4's but can't afford to change all four corners and swapping out the rears is relatively easy.

Would the improved damping at the rear-only bring out the faults in the front sooner rather than later? 

I wouldn’t have thought the front and rear would affect each other but I’m not a mechanic. 

 

Ive just had the back changed and no more rumbling and knocking. 

 

Good luck

Shocks don't prohibit movement and it going down when you lean on the car is normal. It wont damp the upward movement noticeably when you release it either and it should return immediately to the rest position. If it were to continue to bounce up/down that's a different matter. You cant really test the shocks statically by just pushing down and releasing. 

 

Check the shocks visually for evidence of oil leakage instead.

Had the rear shocks changed under warranty on my 14 plate vRS combi as it had an alarming knocking sound like logs moving around in the boot. Problem solved. Known issue with earlier models and golfs as well I believe.

Thanks all. I'll give it all a clean when I change the wheels over in a week or so and keep an eye out for leaks. 

I don't remember my old mk2 hatch doing the same when loading/unloading the rear. 

So when I eventually changed the wheels over I had a look and there are no noticeable leaks.  However I have noticed that when the car has been sat for a while overnight (cold shocks?) The car rides much nicer over bumps. After a short while, maybe a mile or so, it starts to get harsh again. This may be normal behaviour but it feels really underdamped after this initial period of good feeling.  Having looked at various options I've started looking at bilstein b6 shocks but only on the rear. Is this a really dumb idea?

1 hour ago, MarkyG82 said:

However I have noticed that when the car has been sat for a while overnight (cold shocks?) The car rides much nicer over bumps. After a short while, maybe a mile or so, it starts to get harsh again.

That suggests that the tyre pressures are initially increasing quite rapidly when first driving, which suggests that the tyre pressures when cold are too low resulting in lots of flexing of the tyre sidewalls and hence generation of heat which increases the pressures.

 

How do the cold tyre pressures compare to those recommended by Skoda?

Generally I keep the rears at 32-36 depending on load. This is pretty close to spec. Summer boots are 225 40 18.

21 hours ago, SWBoy said:

 

How do the cold tyre pressures compare to those recommended by Skoda?

Nitrogen fill them, end of issue

2 hours ago, themanwithnoaim said:

Nitrogen fill them, end of issue

Air is 79% Nitrogen, it's not the Nitrogen that makes the difference per se, it's that Nitrogen from a cylinder has very low moisture content compared to air - as it's the moisture expanding as its phase changes from droplets to vapour which increases the tyre pressure as they heat up.

1 hour ago, SWBoy said:

Air is 79% Nitrogen, it's not the Nitrogen that makes the difference per se, it's that Nitrogen from a cylinder has very low moisture content compared to air - as it's the moisture expanding as its phase changes from droplets to vapour which increases the tyre pressure as they heat up.

TMI does filling them with nitrogen work or not ?

This has come around several times.

How do you fill a tyre with only dry nitrogen ?

If the air/nitrogen/gas is too dry would it not be damaging to the compound?

 

Still doesn't get round my crapppy suspension control.

14 hours ago, themanwithnoaim said:

TMI does filling them with nitrogen work or not ?

No unless you are talking F1 cars would be my reply, but it's a good money earner for the tyre fitting company.

Edited 3 July, 20187 yr by SWBoy

14 hours ago, gregoir said:

This has come around several times.

How do you fill a tyre with only dry nitrogen ?

From a cylinder of nitrogen bought from an industrial gas supplier.

11 hours ago, MarkyG82 said:

If the air/nitrogen/gas is too dry would it not be damaging to the compound?

The compound doesn't need moisture to work or maintain its properties.

6 hours ago, SWBoy said:

it's a good money earner for the tyre fitting company.

Costco only use nitrogen & if you catch an offer they are cheap

2 minutes ago, themanwithnoaim said:

Costco only use nitrogen & if you catch an offer they are cheap

Nice!

 

Last time I asked in Costco if they could supply tyres for my other car (Citroen C1) they told me that the size of tyres fitted to my summer wheels on it (195/40x16) don't exist - so I invited them to come outside and see 4 of them! Kinda put me off going to them...

On 02/07/2018 at 19:17, gregoir said:

This has come around several times.

How do you fill a tyre with only dry nitrogen ?

No one seems to get this.

What are you breathing? What is your new tyre full of when it's put in the rim?

How are the contents of the tyre removed and replaced by dry nitrogen?

Well the tyre has air at atmospheric to start with. Filling to say 2 bar means 1/3 is atmospheric air (with moisture etc) and 2/3 whatever you filled it with.

 

Clearer?

My point entirely xman and I'm entirely clear. Yes, the tyres are not entirely filled with dry nitrogen, but only 2/3.