I’ve just taken the motor car out for a test drive, everything is straight and level:

 

 

… a good job 🙂

@Othen did you get any knocking from those broken springs? Trying to track down a noise on mine! 

This is good stuff. Thanks, I've got 2 broken springs to change, should i do the shocks at the same time? Any recommendations for manufacturers of the parts?🙂 Phil

Changing shocks at the same time with the springs is imo a no-brainer.😉

Do the shock absorbers with springs is absolutely recommended yes.

On 31/07/2019 at 13:19, Othen said:

Well, I have good news and bad news today.

 

The good news is the bolts arrived in the mail, I followed chimaera's advice (which worked perfectly) and everything came apart easily - the bad news is that the (online) motor factor had sent the wrong shock absorbers. Everything looked fine with the new parts until I checked the bottom bolt for size, and found it was too narrow to accommodate the 21mm bolt:

 

 

This is how it fits in the original:

 

... everything had to be re-assembled and the shock absorbers will have to be exchanged for the correct parts - so this will be a job for next week. Fortunately this is not an urgent task, it was just an advisory point on the car's recent MoT test, but it is still irritating to have wasted a couple of hours.

 

This job really shouldn't take long once I have the right parts. Once the wishbone is lowered and the spring dropped out, access is really easy. I used my motorcycle lift to lower the wishbone and realign the bolt afterwards:

 

This worked perfectly, and in addition allowed me to get the suspension to the right height for torquing up the bolts.

 

Alan.

 

PS. One learns something new every day: I have owned the car from new (6 years) and only today discovered by accident that if I hold down the 'open' button on the key fob it not only unlocks all the doors, but winds down all the windows as well... Wow!

I'm in the middle of this job (write-up to follow later as part of a bigger project) and am struggling to locate suitable axle stand points as if jacking up from the side rail there isn't any space left to put the stand in beside the trolly jack.

In the pic above it looks like the axle stand is under the rear subframe, just in from the mounting bolt - is this considered ok? Or any other suggestions?

On my Mk5 Golf the car is so short and much stiffer than the Skoda that I can jack the front and the rear wheels come off the ground!!

Correct, you can find a suitable spot on the subframe to use your jackstand. Or even better a suitable spot where the subframe is mounted to the chassis.

Any thoughts about actually (gently) jacking up from the subframe mounting point? If its ok to support it from?

NB - on my golf, with Racingline (VWR) springs in it, when I jacked up the lower suspension arm to set the ride height for the final torquing of the bolts the car was raising off the axle stands - I'm expecting the same with the B12 kit when I fit it. So, actually carefully jacking under a sound spring platform arm seems to be ok, but not my first choice!!

Torque it when it is on the ground then. I did that once and worked fine. Or use drininvg ramps if it is a very low car.

The golf was just too low to do that or even to get up on the ramps and I didnt have anything to make the ramps entry shallower :-(

Even then, It looks a pig of a job to do with the wheel on?? Holding a retaining spanner on one side and also getting the torque wrench in there? Doing that from UNDER the car when you could do it from the outside of the car if you just jack up the spring platform / hub.

2 minutes ago, RacingGreen said:

The golf was just too low to do that or even to get up on the ramps and I didnt have anything to make the ramps entry shallower :-(

Even then, It looks a pig of a job to do with the wheel on?? Holding a retaining spanner on one side and also getting the torque wrench in there? Doing that from UNDER the car when you could do it from the outside of the car if you just jack up the spring platform / hub.

I know, but thats was done before I bought a scissor lift....so, I had to improvise and adapt...

Even on a 2 post lifter or scissor lifter, the manual states that one should tie down the car in order to avoid it raising from the lifter to avoid damage/falling off. That will of course be even more important with stiffer springs. I had std springs.

5 hours ago, rbhelle said:

Even on a 2 post lifter or scissor lifter, the manual states that one should tie down the car in order to avoid it raising from the lifter to avoid damage/falling off. That will of course be even more important with stiffer springs. I had std springs.

I totally get the point, but when doing this job at home, on axle stands there is nothing to tie down to.

Slow and steady, keep checking everything and have the front of the car chocked, ideally both front wheels on the car just in case. The problem might come if the front is also on a stand, but the golf was on a stand under the main big front subframe bolt of the rear console bush and there was no worries of it moving.

There is of course another way. Alle wheels on ground. Take off one wheel. Screw back one of the wheel nuts and put jackstand on the nut and slowly lower car. Scary of course, but will do the trick.

On 02/03/2025 at 10:47, Flatters said:

This is good stuff. Thanks, I've got 2 broken springs to change, should i do the shocks at the same time? Any recommendations for manufacturers of the parts?🙂 Phil

From my recent experience of doing a Tiguan Mk1, a Golf Mk5 and now the Superb Mk2 I would say change everything if you have the back end in bits.

Spring

Shock

Spring rubbers

Bump stops

Shock top mount

ALL bolts

Also seriously look at the condition of the rear spring platform arms - My 10y/o 50k miles Mk2 Superb arms are rotten. Unfortunately I cant get the inner bolt out of the arm so it needs to go to the local workshop for the arm replacement, but I will have done the shock and added the spring and rubbers.

Take note of the post above, changed my shocks and springs then this happened…

Arms are not dear, avs car parts has all the bits,so change the arms and bolts both sides and got realigned.

Then renewed the front suspension too.

Edited 18 March, 20251 yr by Nackuk

Better view of the arms

You've done well there @Nackuk - I could hear mine creaking with the rust when I was jacking them up to get the shock bolt torqued at road height.

[img]

The other thing I would say is just get on and take out the rear arch liner when you are doing any work around this area and have a good jet-wash around, address any obvious corrosion (wire brush, rust-proofing primer and a waft of topcoat) and then spray in something waxy or oily (I'm going to try Lanoguard).

[img] [img]

My arm failed like this…. At 206k miles

This fantastic thread has given me the impetus to actually get on with getting my suspension fully sorted, front and rear. I've been very fortunate in having a local garage that will do all the work of replacing the shocks, springs, control links, bolts, rubber stops and covers for circa £250 labour change. I used AutoDoc to order all the bits and pieces in, getting Bilstein shocks and springs, all the ancillary bits as well. I'm looking forward to my 100,700 mile estate floating along a bit more smoothly once the work is completed. The total cost of all the bits and pieces (I added some service items as well) is £465 for all the quality items. Also having the brake fluid flushed and changed.

4 minutes ago, makman said:

This fantastic thread has given me the impetus to actually get on with getting my suspension fully sorted, front and rear. I've been very fortunate in having a local garage that will do all the work of replacing the shocks, springs, control links, bolts, rubber stops and covers for circa £250 labour change. I used AutoDoc to order all the bits and pieces in, getting Bilstein shocks and springs, all the ancillary bits as well. I'm looking forward to my 100,700 mile estate floating along a bit more smoothly once the work is completed. The total cost of all the bits and pieces (I added some service items as well) is £465 for all the quality items. Also having the brake fluid flushed and changed.

Good on you!

Maybe get the lower rear spring platform arms changed as well??

4 minutes ago, makman said:

This fantastic thread has given me the impetus to actually get on with getting my suspension fully sorted, front and rear. I've been very fortunate in having a local garage that will do all the work of replacing the shocks, springs, control links, bolts, rubber stops and covers for circa £250 labour change. I used AutoDoc to order all the bits and pieces in, getting Bilstein shocks and springs, all the ancillary bits as well. I'm looking forward to my 100,700 mile estate floating along a bit more smoothly once the work is completed. The total cost of all the bits and pieces (I added some service items as well) is £465 for all the quality items. Also having the brake fluid flushed and changed.

Wow, that is what I call a very, very decent price for 4 shocks and labour! At least compared to Norway. Up here at a dealership it is more like 2000 GBP all 4 shocks and labour...maybe even more. I was quoted 1000GBP just for the front absorbers (not electric ones)

When they did the brakes recently, these were deemed okay. So that should be okay...... famous last words.

1 minute ago, rbhelle said:

Wow, that is what I call a very, very decent price for 4 shocks and labour! At least compared to Norway. Up here at a dealership it is more like 2000 GBP all 4 shocks and labour...maybe even more. I was quoted 1000GBP just for the front absorbers (not electric ones)

They were okay with me supplying the parts, so long as I bought the right stuff that was clearly for my vehicle (AutoDoc makes that easy).

And they are a decent with two two posters and a four poster hoist. They do MOT's, servicing, tyres, repairs and so on. Just down the road from me as well, so a short walk (10 mins).

Its nice to get a trusted local place to do this sort of stuff.

I will be getting my local trusted workshop to do the rear arms and the rear discs and pads + full bleed in a few weeks after I get the front end all replaced.