Hi All,

 

I have recently bought my first Skoda Fabia  2 Estate (2008) and all in all it's a great car, since I have had the car the ride has got progressively worse, after getting my friend who's a full time mechanic to look over it the ball joint, track rod end and anti-roll bar link bar all needed replacing, so I decided to do both sides as preventative maintenance. After taking it for alignment at my local garage they notified me that the console bushes where completely shot, these have since been replaced. It has since been fully aligned and now the ride is even worse.

 

If I am driving down the bumpy main roads of south Manchester the steering wheel generally feels so unstable and will vibrate and shake randomly, and if I hit any sort of pot hole (which there is many) the steering wheel will violently jolt to whichever side the pot hole is, this also applies to any bump or dip in the road, it's gotten so bad that I nearly fully wiped out on the M60 last night because of it. I have today taken it to my local garage to get them to fully inspect on the ramp and they came back with no findings, they said all joints and bushes where good, inner track rod was fine and no signs of any leaks or bad condition on any of the shocks.

 

I'm at a bit of a loss as how I should progress before I chuck any money at it. It's a general run about car as I'm not in a financial position to buy a newer 5K car for example. When I test drove the car from the used car dealer it drove perfect with no nasty bumps, knocks or rattles. It has a clean MOT history and fairly good service history along with 4 good continental tires.

 

My first though that maybe the strut mounts up top have gone but as they are not visible from the mount point under the bonnet it's hard to tell. Any help or advice would be much appreciated. It's gotten to a point where I don't even want to drive the car anymore and just want rid unless it can be fixed for good as my previous experience of the 1.9 PD VAG engine has been great, the engine's are bulletproof. The car has 125K miles on it and was 1 owner from new and serviced at a main dealer Skoda garage.

 

Any help will be much appreciated

Today I had it checked over by an independent garage that a friend recommended and it turned out to be a crack in the front drivers side coil spring, when the car is stationary you can actaually pull the spring back and forth which isn't good at all. Got the parts on order from EuroCarParts and will be fitting them next week along with new strut bushes considering the whole assembly needs to be removed.

 

2 hours ago, MSH4190 said:

Today I had it checked over by an independent garage that a friend recommended and it turned out to be a crack in the front drivers side coil spring, when the car is stationary you can actaually pull the spring back and forth which isn't good at all. Got the parts on order from EuroCarParts and will be fitting them next week along with new strut bushes considering the whole assembly needs to be removed.

 

 

I would replace the front shocks as well since at 125k they will be effectively knackered.

3 hours ago, MSH4190 said:

Today I had it checked over by an independent garage that a friend recommended and it turned out to be a crack in the front drivers side coil spring, when the car is stationary you can actaually pull the spring back and forth which isn't good at all. 

I am very surprised with two different mech's looking at it that neither spotted what the third inspection revealed. Specially as you say you can pull the spring back and forth.

Still, the tighter replacement bushes etc, may well have made the issue worse as everything else was then taught and responsive, leaving the real issue to work even harder, so to speak! Glad you found it and although it has been a painful, costly ride, you will most definitely benefit from all the replaced parts, once finished.

 

3 hours ago, MSH4190 said:

 

 

Goodness knows? Some garage techs are incompetent. You take your car on to be inspected for ride and handling and they don't check the coil springs? First thing I check, then the dampers, then linkages, then bushes.

 

Don't forget the bearings and tyres. Even tyres with plenty wear can have flat spots or damage.

Edited 8 August, 20205 yr by spartacus68

Cheers guys, I'm going to do the whole lot Shocks, Springs and Strut mounting bearing next week. Will be just over £120 for the parts and me and friend will fit it. It doesn't seem overly complicated but it's all rust dependent. 

 

It will be like a new car after this work. Luckily it hasn't cost me any money. My Kia Ceed estate that I bought off a friend for mates rates was written off a month ago and I managed to get £2500 off the guys insurance company as it was uneconomical to repair. I paid £1750 for the car 6 months prior so no complaints really.

 

Pretty happy that I've found the cause of the issue to be honest considering it's like driving a boat on a rough sea.

 

Any tips on replacing the whole shock, spring and strut mount?