Removing front suspension issues. HELP NEEDED!

[Sam Murray]

I’m in the process of changing the springs on my VW POLO 6R. The rears were a piece of p*** and went on easily. However when tackling the fronts I can’t seem to get the bottom of the shock out of the mount.
I’ve freed it up and it’s fairly loose however I can’t get it low enough to take the bottom of the shock all the way out.
Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Ricmondo]

Are you compressing the shock absorber before attempting to remove it?

[Sam Murray]

No, I didn’t know that was possible

[iichel]

front left should be easy.
front right, it's recommended in the factory repair manual to remove the drive shaft and disconnect the lower wishbone, but you'll get away with a good spring compressor.

[Sam Murray]

Thanks, I’ve just managed to get the front right out by removing it from the ball joint I think it is. I’m now stuck as I’ve clamped the springs down with some compressors however don’t have a spanner that will reach in and undo the top nut

[RUM4MO]

Normally the smart and quick way to get the RHS front spring out is to remove the drive shaft nut and the lower swivel nuts, otherwise you will bottom when trying to force the wishbone down far enough.

The LHS is a lot easier, no meshing with drive shaft or lower swivel.

Edit:- I used to use a spark plug socket and a long allen key to stop the piston rod from turning, now I use a drive through, or Vortex type socket set - and a long hex key bit to hold the piston rod.

[iichel]

1 took an old 23 (or 22/21mm, cant remember) nut and grinded the top down so that a wrench can fit on it. from a circle to a more oval shape, so to say.
then you can put an allen key with a ratchet through the hole.

[Sam Murray]

I’ve ordered some swan neck spanners which might solve my problem. I also have a spark plug socket as mentioned however the hole down the centre will not fit a 7mm allenkey so I’m goint to take it into work tomorrow and drill it out a little.

[alexperkins]

Be sure to get your tracking done after it’s all refitted as it’ll be put if you’ve had the balljoint off

[Sam Murray]

someone else mentioned that to me. Thanks mate , hoping to get it all done tomorrow then get the tracking done on Tuesday.

[RUM4MO]

I was lucky maybe as I had a spark plug socket that had a "hex" end on it, very convenient!

After I refitted the lower balljoint/swivel assembly, I initially refitted it using the original nuts and bolts, then when I had tightened these wrong bolts up tight enough to hold it in position, I used a hammer and a block to move it around until it was back in its original position, using the marks left by its original nuts and bolts, fully tightened all 3 of these bolts, rechecked the position, then removed each bolt one at a time and fitted new bolts and nuts.

Edit:- I replaced the top nut, top mount, lower nut, top bearing, strut and clamping nut and bolt at the same time - and obviously the RHS drive shaft nut. My logic was, just too many folk that had taken the struts off the car were finding that when reusing the original strut, for one reason or another, a few week later, the piston seal started to leak, so they had to repeat all this work! As well as the car that I was working on was 8.5 years old, so I did not expect to need to replace another spring, so "when in there sort it all out" type of thinking. Also, there was a change to the top bearing and maybe another part to get rid of suspension noises, Ibiza had this type of work corrected under warranty when the customers complained, so that drove what I changed a bit as well, that annoying noise disappeared after I replaced these springs etc.

[Sam Murray]

Very helpful thanks! I have found a spark plug socket with a hex but just need to widen the hole to fit a 7mm Allenkey. Can anyone tell me what the torque rating for those 3 bottom nuts are that hold the ball joint on ? and is it essential that I replace them?

[RUM4MO]

Well this might frighten you, from the Haynes VW Polo 6R repair manual 100Nm, if it did scare you, SEAT recommend 40Nm + 45 degrees. I did question Haynes about that value and they confirmed that according to VW workshop data it was correct.

Edit:- it is advised that you replace the nuts as they are self locking, if I remember, they are just crushed to give them that self locking feature. I must have been wrong when I said that I used other bolts and nuts initially, the bolts are part of the lower joint, so it must have just been the nuts - normal and not self locking ones that I used for the initial positioning!

[alexperkins]

100 seems waaaaay too tight. I’ll check Elsa tomorrow as it sounds like Haynes are using the wrong data for this

[RUM4MO]

Well that was what I thought as well as these captive bolts are M8, though I think as the nuts have flanges, the resistant to turning gets increased without all that extra torque being carried by the actual captive bolts - that is the only logic that I could find for that value.