Hello,

 

I was wondering if anyone can confirm whether the shock top mounts should be tight against the chassis? Free floating top mounts seems wrong. The other car we have has several bolts holding the top mount in place.

 

The recently changed ones move around with steering lock and I assumed that the strut and nut, visible from under the scuttle and cap, should rotate on the bearing, or else why go to the trouble of having a bearing? Below are the worst situations where on the driver's side with full RH lock on (1st picture) and the LHS with fully LH lock is also creating a large gap. Straight wheels and the gap mostly disappears. I think the springs are radially expanding or contracting as the steering wheel was turned by my daughter and I was observing the springs, depending on which direction the wheel is turning, which makes sense for the top of the shock unit being locked solid against the bearing.

 

When turning on close to full lock the car makes a horrible scraping noise, particularly when it is cold. The car did go back to the garage last Thursday and Friday to be checked again, but apparently no issue was detected.

 

Or have the incorrect, too long, shocks been installed?

 

Many thanks in advance for any comments about this issue. It'll be helpful to say that this is not normal or it is normal to the garage.

 

 

t

That looks okay, that "top cap" is just top prevent the strut from "leaving" its correct location is something extraordinary happens to the car.

 

The car still should be able to rotate these struts with the top bearing allowing for this to happen, and certainly, the springs should not end up "winding up" as the steering is applied. The top of the lower spring platform on the struts has a "pressing" that should assist in locating the springs when they have been fitted correctly - maybe check that the lower end of the springs is located against this "stop", it is located at the "front" of the strut spring platform on the LHS strut and so at the "rear" of the strut spring platform on the RHS strut - and maybe obviously, the lower spring coil should also be getting held within the 2 upturned guides on that lower strut spring platform.

 

I've ended up with a partially seized top bearing on a 2002 VW Polo, and that was obvious to workout after getting it up onto stands and removing the steering from the hubs, I'd think that the front suspension on that car would have been making lots of noises when the steering wheel was turned - too long ago to remember!

 

Edit:- it is never a good idea to place fingers within a car's coil springs, but in your case, as the springs are new, they should not be in danger of suddenly snapping and trapping your fingers.

 

I noticed that one side of my wife's 2015 VW Polo (same car basically) was maybe 6mm lower than the other side - I check the ride height at service time, so I checked in that area, and the gap on the lower side was again maybe 6mm more than on the other side.

This lower side is the original top mounting/bearing/spring seat, the higher side got a new top mounting under warranty - even although I think that it had nothing to do with what was the root cause of my complaint - which was VW Group, at that period of manufacture, using the gearbox mounting from the non turbo petrol engined cars on all non GTI petrol engined cars.

I'm replacing the springs, mounts, bearings and struts, on that car right now, so I'll be very disappointed if it does not sit "level" after carrying out this work!

Edited 7 October, 20241 yr by rum4mo

Hi Rum4mo, many thanks for your reply and apologies for my slow thanks. The car went into a different garage to get a window regulator changed. The mechanics there thought the top caps, were behaving normally. The car will still go back for checking next week as it makes a lot of noise on its full steering locks, which it didn't when it was new, the car was delivered with 13 miles on it. So I don't buy the it just needs bedding reason for the noise. I'll let you know the outcome later. Thanks again.

Hi, The car went back today and the top mount bearings were replaced. The top-caps now sit level and ~5-7 mm clear of the chassis. Apparently the new bearings had seized, so were replaced with another set of new ones. The whole coil over shock seems to rotate with steering inputs, as it should, now. Hopefully this issue is sorted now. I took the opportunity to give the scuttle a clean and poked out the various sludges from the drains...which will hopefully cure the excess moisture in the car 🙂 . Thanks rum4mo for you support and I hope you got your job done too.