I have a 2016 superb SEL with DCC. Had to call breakdown recovery today - 50 miles from home - as one of my front coil springs broke. For context it's 8.5yr old with about 75k on the clock, and at my last service had advisories for minor coil corrosion & some light misting (to the nearside front and rear wheels). 

 

The recovery truck took it to a local garage chain (which rhymes with stick bit), who are quoting almost £1100 to replace just the 2 front springs, shock absorbers and surrounding parts that it's best to replace at the same time.

 

My local independent who do my servicing quoted £780ish for all 4 springs to be replaced (without the shocks), but I've asked them to quote again with those included as well. 

 

Do those prices seem reasonable?

 

When speaking to the chain I felt a bit dubious as I said it was a lot of money and asked to be emailed a breakdown of the parts & labour quote so I could understand what exactly was going to be done - the phone line was very muffled & his accent difficult to understand - and he made up some excuse about the part supplier not being able to give prices until an actual order was placed!? And he also said something like "the springs cost over £200 each and you'll need 2 of them". 

 

I'm accepting it's going to be a rather large bill to replace all four springs + shocks, but I'd rather get it done well with quality parts so they'll last longer this time round.

 

With that in mind, are there any particular parts I could/should be asking my local independent to quote on, rather than just leaving them to choose OEM or whatevers cheapest? 

 

I feel like my local will do a better job and I'll take the transport cost on the chin to get it to them, if I'm gonna be spending well in excess of £1k. I don't really want to rush to agree to the chain doing just the front axle for m £1100 as I'm sure they'll just use the cheapest lowest quality parts. 

 

Apologies, I'm not that clued up on the mechanics/parts involved, hence coming here for some friendly advice. 

 

Anyway thanks in advance, all input will be much appreciated. 👍 

alternative, similar price with better performance

Eibach Pro + Bilstein B6 DampTronic

-> https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/510961-2023-280ps-lk-replaced-2016-220ps-style/page/3/#findComment-5854160

 

 

1 hour ago, tph216 said:

I have a 2016 superb SEL with DCC. Had to call breakdown recovery today - 50 miles from home - as one of my front coil springs broke. For context it's 8.5yr old with about 75k on the clock, and at my last service had advisories for minor coil corrosion & some light misting (to the nearside front and rear wheels). 

 

The recovery truck took it to a local garage chain (which rhymes with stick bit), who are quoting almost £1100 to replace just the 2 front springs, shock absorbers and surrounding parts that it's best to replace at the same time.

 

My local independent who do my servicing quoted £780ish for all 4 springs to be replaced (without the shocks), but I've asked them to quote again with those included as well. 

 

Do those prices seem reasonable?

 

When speaking to the chain I felt a bit dubious as I said it was a lot of money and asked to be emailed a breakdown of the parts & labour quote so I could understand what exactly was going to be done - the phone line was very muffled & his accent difficult to understand - and he made up some excuse about the part supplier not being able to give prices until an actual order was placed!? And he also said something like "the springs cost over £200 each and you'll need 2 of them". 

 

I'm accepting it's going to be a rather large bill to replace all four springs + shocks, but I'd rather get it done well with quality parts so they'll last longer this time round.

 

With that in mind, are there any particular parts I could/should be asking my local independent to quote on, rather than just leaving them to choose OEM or whatevers cheapest? 

 

I feel like my local will do a better job and I'll take the transport cost on the chin to get it to them, if I'm gonna be spending well in excess of £1k. I don't really want to rush to agree to the chain doing just the front axle for m £1100 as I'm sure they'll just use the cheapest lowest quality parts. 

 

Apologies, I'm not that clued up on the mechanics/parts involved, hence coming here for some friendly advice. 

 

Anyway thanks in advance, all input will be much appreciated. 👍 

Someone not giving you a price unless you place an order is an immediate red flag to me.
 

Plenty of places will be able to fully price up the work for you and also break it into its component elements. Never commit to anything unless you’re making a fully-informed decision.

10 minutes ago, MartiniB said:

alternative, similar price with better performance

Eibach Pro + Bilstein B6 DampTronic

-> https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/510961-2023-280ps-lk-replaced-2016-220ps-style/page/3/#findComment-5854160

 

 

Interesting, that's a long list of parts! Is that everything that's needed to replace the shocks + springs, or covering additional stuff as well?

 

 

Changing them separately will cost much more

1 hour ago, MartiniB said:

Changing them separately will cost much more

Yeah that's why I'd like to have all 4 done in one shot. 

 

The shock absorbers have been misting on and off for years, so I've been a bit sceptical of their quality for a while. I've never had another car do that and drive pretty tamely/cautiously. So I'd be keen to get a better set installed rather than matching OEM. 

1 hour ago, travs said:

Someone not giving you a price unless you place an order is an immediate red flag to me.
 

Plenty of places will be able to fully price up the work for you and also break it into its component elements. Never commit to anything unless you’re making a fully-informed decision.

Yeah it felt it. 

 

I never know if garages are ever open to taking on board customer suggestions of what spec parts to use. I always suspect they probably roll their eyes and think "awkward customer incoming". 😕

I’ve got the car going for MOT next week and getting them also to fit the an uprated dogbone mount and rear arb. Not a problem for them but they’re pretty  obvious uprated items and…well it’s my car. They can either fit them or I’ll get someone else to do it or find the time to do it myself. But I’m sourcing the parts and supplying them. That may be the difference; decide what you want, get them, and then get a place to fit them properly. 

11 hours ago, travs said:

I’ve got the car going for MOT next week and getting them also to fit the an uprated dogbone mount and rear arb. Not a problem for them but they’re pretty  obvious uprated items and…well it’s my car. They can either fit them or I’ll get someone else to do it or find the time to do it myself. But I’m sourcing the parts and supplying them. That may be the difference; decide what you want, get them, and then get a place to fit them properly. 

I pressed the chain a bit more on what brand shocks they'd fit. The guy said "oh it'll just be a standard OEM equivalent, probably Starline or something like that". I'm not at all clued up on these things so I don't know whether that's good or bad (hunch is probably bad). 

 

I was tied up in a work course on Wednesday & Thursday, hence being put on the spot and having to agree to the recovery taking it to Kwik fit. I'm off today though, so probably going to try and find a better garage in Leeds to do the work. 

 

After a bit of research I was thinking perhaps asking whoever I go with if they could supply & fit Bilstein B4' and Eibach springs (or at least recommend something at a similar quality level). I'd much rather pay a couple hundred more now for parts that will last, than get whatever crap the chain fit for £1100 and then maybe have to have the same done again in a couple of years.

 

Just trying to find a reputable VAG garage or two in Leeds now to ring around. 

12 hours ago, travs said:

I’ve got the car going for MOT next week and getting them also to fit the an uprated dogbone mount and rear arb. Not a problem for them but they’re pretty  obvious uprated items and…well it’s my car. They can either fit them or I’ll get someone else to do it or find the time to do it myself. But I’m sourcing the parts and supplying them. That may be the difference; decide what you want, get them, and then get a place to fit them properly. 

 

The part about the customer buying their own parts, really from any source seems have become a big "NO NO" for many garages, a bit annoying for some of us, but I've had that response when I wanted a new ABS sensor fitting and then the car being MOT'd, initially that hurt a bit, but I had to accept it, really not too good as I grabbed a new ABS to carry out diagnostics - and ECP was the easiest place to buy a Bosch one from - £67.99  PIM price was under £15, but that would have taken maybe 3 or 4 days to land on my doormat!

 

Leaking DCC dampers, especially the LHS front ones, hum, yes, a common problem it seems like, SEAT at least, fit Monroe at factory, and the difference in price from a Monroe branded DCC front damper and a Monroe VW Group branded DCC front damper - at least for a 2019 SEAT Leon Cupra is huge - horrible.

I didn't realise that DCC front LHS damper was a common/known problem. Wonder why that is? 

 

Mines had reported misting advisories from when it was just out of warranty. Then it's been noticeably squeaky grin about 6yr old. It's now 8.5yr old & the coil snapped. 

 

Rest of the car has been mostly great all that time. Barr an issue with coolant tank cracks a couple of years ago (again a known/common problem & manufacturing defect, apparently).

 

This is the first car I've ever bought from new, spec'd exactly as I wanted it, and I intend to keep it until it conks out completely. I had in mind that would be at at least at 20yr old (2036). So it would be nice to think that perhaps I could get the front suspension fitted out with parts that will last until then. 

Maybe it depends what is being done: uprating or replacing as standard and whether the garage wants to source parts. My brakes needed changing and I said that I was looking to replace with uprated parts, that I could get X at ££ and offered that if they could price match while earning themselves a margin on that then I was happy to go that route. They didn't seem bothered about the latter and were happy to do it. Same with next week's work - fine to do the work.

 

My instinct will be partially protecting margin they have on supplying parts...but it could be that larger places have contracts with certain places and avoid anything else over legal claims over failure of the part; ie was it defective or badly fitted. If defective, then they can forward responsibility onto the supplier they have a relationship with. With customer supplied parts, there is no mitigation of risk.

 

4 minutes ago, tph216 said:

I didn't realise that DCC front LHS damper was a common/known problem. Wonder why that is? 

 

Mines had reported misting advisories from when it was just out of warranty. Then it's been noticeably squeaky grin about 6yr old. It's now 8.5yr old & the coil snapped. 

 

Rest of the car has been mostly great all that time. Barr an issue with coolant tank cracks a couple of years ago (again a known/common problem & manufacturing defect, apparently).

 

This is the first car I've ever bought from new, spec'd exactly as I wanted it, and I intend to keep it until it conks out completely. I had in mind that would be at at least at 20yr old (2036). So it would be nice to think that perhaps I could get the front suspension fitted out with parts that will last until then. 

I didn't know the LHS was a weakness either tbh. As far as I know, Monroe are the originals, not particularly respected but no idea if OE pattern parts end up being any better.  

 

I don't know why it is the LHS that, at least in UK, seem to fail the most, possibly  due to how these parts get integrated into the suspension system on VW Group cars - or a RHD only issue - and so it could be RHS mainly in LHD markets.

 

On the question of supplying your own parts, in my case, I think that my honest garage owner did end up maybe charging more time than that job warranted due to them "operating to my instruction" - but I'll take that. I'm sure that there is plenty scope of that if you as a customer request/require working doing that is not being done from a menu or "book times". I had said that I had carried out the diagnostics side of the job so all I wanted was for his workshop to deal with the issue of removing a seized in failed ABS sensor. The final bill did outline that work was carried out to as requested - which is correct and fair enough to both parties.

 

Maybe I need to look further afield if I really do get lazy/worried about replacing all my front suspension arms - as I've already bought all of them and all associated fixings, a shame really as I want to put work his way, ie support my local small independent workshop.

 

My last job that was carried out on my car was done by a localish VW Group Indie, first they "poo poo'd" me when I suggested that the only source for the correct parts was Audi, after a few days they got back to me to confirm that was correct and needed me to collect my car until parts could be procured. Then it turned out that one part was out of stock at Audi - that was true and very unfortunate for us, after that I offered to take on the task of ordering in the parts which they were happy enough as one part was back order with no firm suggestion on when it would become available - but, in general, I'd suspect that they would decline any requests from me to fit supplied parts to cars, and I can understand that as there are as you said, the issue of any items failing early, plus any items supplied being wrong for that model of car - and so lead to "car in bits stuck on a lift with someone needing to pay for lost time/revenue" and also low grade parts being supplied, ie lower grade than their workshop is willing to work with - really potentially lots of issues that could only work against their business.

The usual issue with a customer supplying their own parts is warranty.

 

If a customer supplied part fails who pays for the labour to replace?

 

If the garage supplies and fits the parts and something fails under warranty, then the garage pays.

If it's the customer supplying part, the customer has to pay and theoretically claim the labour back from the part supplier. Which realistically isn't going to happen.

Edited 14 February, 20251 yr by defsix

Exactly, I'd always be very aware that I'd end up paying for labour to replace, no "ifs" or "buts".

As for LHS shocks, I'm assuming that's because of is driving on the left side. This the LHS shock is at the mercy of the edge of the road. And / Or single occupancy in the car, less weight on that side of the car then.

I've found a garage today that specialise is VAG and who sound trustworthy and like they know what they're talking about. 

 

They priced up the job and when I asked about brands & quality said they'll use Sachs parts, which from googling sounds reasonable & acceptable to me. Much better sounding than the chain eventually suggested. 

 

They quoted basically £800, including collection of the vehicle from the chain garage, supply & fitting of the 2 front springs, electronic shocks and associated parts (all Sachs or equivalent). 

 

Equivalent quote from the chain was £1100 to supply & fit likely cheapest/nastiest parts only. And not much confidence from me that they'd do a good job if it. 

 

So it's a no brainer now to have this indie VAG specialist do the work instead. 

 

Has anyone any experience if Sachs suspension parts? 

Sachs is a brand name of ZF who are one of the original equipment suppliers so they should be fine.

On 15/02/2025 at 03:28, tph216 said:

electronic shocks and associated parts (all Sachs

then share part codes, haven't heard they do offer DCCs

 

Well, I had it done & picked up car yesterday, £888 all-in. I'm not sure they actually are Sachs as the itemised bill listing parts, for the shockers, started with the code MONR, which perhaps could be Monroe?

 

But anyway, it all feels good, great in fact. I'd forgotten how smooth & comfortable the ride had been, as I guess over time you just get used to the gradually reducing ride quality. The front's so quiet I now notice a similar minor squeaking/creaking coming from the back occasionally, so perhaps the back are similarly affected and I should get those done as well in the short-medium term. 

Yearly mot done and my nearside shock is demeed to be leaking. DCC too, so sitting down after reading this. I knew of knew this day of reckoning was due, potholes!

@ColinD

"congratulations", now you have stronger reason for upgrade

after 3 years with Eibach Pro + Bilstein B6 DampTronic on my previous 2016. Mk3

i did the same just after one year on my current 2023. Mk3.FL without waiting misting

-> https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/510961-2023-280ps-lk-replaced-2016-220ps-style/page/3/#findComment-5854160