Bumpstop trimmimng 101 - picture guide

Whenever you decrease the travel of your suspension with shorter springs, it's generally agreed it's a good idea to shorten the bumpstops -

Bump Stops are short hard poly sleeves that prevent the suspension from bottoming out and getting damaged. Also known as spring helpers - these can come into play well before the now uprated suspension has reached the end of its designed travel. (e.g. you lower the car 25mm - you lose 25mm of suspension damper travel).

Result - you're simply not getting 100% out of your uprated suspension- ie can lead to a harsh ride and/or poor handling.

I've read that some service mechanics aren't too familiar with cutting the stops, so it's good to know to do so...

The trimming can be done while the suspension is still on the car - merely jack up the relevant wheel and expose the upper part of the damper by pulling on the plastic sleeve and then trim. In the case of the rears, cut out a doughnut from the center and re-join upper and lower bits with epoxy glue.

Needed:

2 each new front (Fabia P/N. 6Q0 412 301A) and rear bumpstops (Fabia "stop buffer" P/N 6Q0 512 131 IF doing it off the car.

One Stanley/Kraft knife

Good quality epoxy glue. Fast-setting if doing the bumpstops whilst still on the car.

Steady Hand/or supply of antiseptic and sticking plasters. Skin suture set and tetanus injection optional (ie be careful!)

Pics show where you need to cut, and the cut bits before the rears are glued together.

You only need to take off one lobe from the bottom of the fronts, and a tad more from the middle of the rears, which then have to be reglued. I measured 18mm cut off from the fronts and 28 from the rears.

Bump stops cut really nicely btw