Hello all. I am about to replace the front shock absorbers and top mounts on my 1.2htp Fabia. I just want to check that I have all required parts before I start the job and that I’m not missing anything. I’ll attach pictures of what I have currently. I currently have:

•Bilstein Front Shock Absorber.

1.0/1.2/1.4 x 2

• Sachs Coil Spring x 2.

• Suspension Strut Support

Bushing with mounting accessories x 2.

• Bump Stops for the Shock Absorber and Front Dust Seal Febi x 2

If I’m missing anything I would great full for any information. Thanks.

If I remember correctly you have to use new bolt to fix shock to knuckle. I didnt bother but used threadlock on mine as I had it apart before I realised. Also the top mounts on my Octavia have a specific direction to be mounted. Check the old ones when they are removed. Skoda ones have arrows but the KYB ones I got didnt so had to fit by comparison. I assume you have a decent safe spring compressor? Not sure if you need to remove Hub. If so you will need new nuts. When I did mine the bolts that hold top mount were seized and started spinning. I managed to get a long extension bar with socket in wheel arch to stop the nuts that had broken their welds from turning.

Alasdair

Perfect iv added the knuckle bolts & nuts to my basket along with the hub nut just to be safe. Dose the coil spring have a cup to sit into at the top of the assembly or dose it just sit on the top mount bearing housing?

Not sure but just noticed think the bolt that your looking for is in the second picture. Three for top mount, 1 nut for strut and bolt and nut for base of shock. From memory on my octavia they just sit by themselves unless mine was missing.

I used a cold chisel to carefully wedge open knuckle to separate the shock.

You may need a special socket for top of strut to hold while loosening and tightening. I got away with a swan neck spanner. Hate doing springs. Have had a bit of a run of blown shocks and broken springs. Hope I dont have to do any more soon. In the last year I have had three shocks and 4 broken springs.(two were on the rear so easier to change)

Alasdair

That is a bad run indeed. It’s the top mount that has gone bad on mine at the moment. It just feels a waste taking everything apart to get to the top mount and not just refreshing the whole lot while I’m in there.

I agree chances are the shock will fail as soon as you put a new top mount on. My bad run of luck I think is old cars and cars sitting too long plus freezing weather and roads are shocking.

Yes, the top bearing is the top spring seat.

You will probably need to release the right hand side drive shaft to move the hub out of the way as the drive shaft on that side ends up limiting how far you can push the hub down to get the damper out of it.

You can buy "hub expanders" very cheaply on ebay or just buy the set of 2 bits that get sold to do the same job, I ended up breaking a screw driver bit using it to open up the hub pinch point, none of my chisels were up to the job of staying in the slot, for the side that had a broken spring, so essential to sort out, I might have used a ground down allen key to open up the hub. After messing around on that first side I made sure that I had bought a set of "hub opener" bits - and they worked really well! In recent years I bought a "hub expander" tool to use on another car, and that also worked very well - using my "hub opener" VAG bits was not the best plan for that second VAG car front suspension job.

Edit:- removing one end of the ARB drop link and the track rod end also makes this job easier, best plan to to replace any/all bolts and nuts you remove - maybe even prepare for fitting new ARB drop links as "getting rough" with the fixing nut might lead to messing or cutting an end off, just don't buy genuine VW Group ARB drop links as doing that will damage your wallet a lot for no good reason!

Edited 12 March12 Mar by rum4mo

Thanks for all the info much appreciated!