Hi all.

 

I had two new rear OE dampers fitted yesterday as after 120k miles on the originals they were leaking oil badly at the end of their life!

 

I was hoping that the squirmy, crashy ride I was getting with the old knackered units would disappear.

 

In general the crashing and lateral squirming has gone, no more horrible bottoming out over potholes and the laterally the car now feels planted again, however, the back end of the car now feels horrible in other ways. The best way to describe it is that it feels like the car is constantly bouncing up and down. Even at low speed it feels like it is constantly going over bumps (almost like the wheels are oval!), on the way to work today it's actually made my headache with the amount of movement I'm now getting, my 3 year old son even claimed it was fun like a roller coaster!

 

Before, even though the shocks were really tired, I got a flat consistent ride. There was no excessive vertical movement, the only issues were the rear shocks bottoming out when going over big potholes and the rear of the car feeling squirmy around faster corners.....but the overall 'flatness' of the car felt great as it always has done, balanced.

 

Could the fitment of the new shocks at the rear, whilst the front has much older units, have unbalanced the car front to back, or is there something I should be asking the garage to look at (just about to call them in fact). I'm assuming on a standard OE shock there is no adjustment to speak of so I'm a bit stumped.

 

Cheers for any help.

 

 

 

Why do you say they are OE parts?

 

Were they supplied by VAG or TPS?

Are the rear spring original? perhaps they need changing ? 

By the time the shocks or springs need changing the expanded foam rubber bump stops will have crumbled into dust, perhaps they threw away the remains and did not replace them 💡

2 hours ago, J.R. said:

Why do you say they are OE parts?

 

Were they supplied by VAG or TPS?

 

I think, to be fair, I was probably trying to suggest by saying OE that the parts are not uprated or 'performance' in any way, they are direct, standard replacements. Apologies for the misuse of lingo. My garage always give me an option on quality as well and never go with the cheapest route, once bitten twice shy etc.

9 minutes ago, J.R. said:

By the time the shocks or springs need changing the expanded foam rubber bump stops will have crumbled into dust, perhaps they threw away the remains and did not replace them 💡

 

worth checking, they are pretty thorough so I'd hope that wasn't the case, but worth the question. Cheers

2 hours ago, seriesdriver said:

Are the rear spring original? perhaps they need changing ? 

 

Another good point. I asked at the time and the garage deemed them to be fine....have to go with what they say as they dont often get it wrong, but again worth the question. cheers.

It actually sounds like there is free movement where they are not damping, like they dont have mounting bushes or the fixings are loose, beyond the free movement they seem to be damping correctly.

45 minutes ago, J.R. said:

It actually sounds like there is free movement where they are not damping, like they dont have mounting bushes or the fixings are loose, beyond the free movement they seem to be damping correctly.

 

I'll be calling them later as my day has just gotten away from me.....sounds like it might be a good place to start asking about the bushes.

 

You are right in saying that in general handling feels fine, it really is just the excessive vertical movement.