front strut.

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Takaboby
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front strut.

Post by Takaboby »

Any information appreciated.. - MOT advisory today; “Nearside/offside Front Macpherson strut has slight movement at the upper attachment (2.5.A.1c)” is this solved with a Strut Repair Kit, or do I renew the struts? GT.
Last edited by Takaboby on Tue Jan 16, 2018 8:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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iichel
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Re: front strut.

Post by iichel »

could be solved with new rubbers at the top mount, yes. could simply be a screw that came slightly undone. or it could be a broken shock. hard to say...
Takaboby
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Re: front strut.

Post by Takaboby »

Ok, thanks. I’m looking at a strut repair kit but I will investigate first. I read that mot advisory can be a bit fickle.
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iichel
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Re: front strut.

Post by iichel »

well the play on the top mount could cause unsafe/unpredictable/bad handling of the car so i guess it's best to get it fixed.
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Re: front strut.

Post by RUM4MO »

I'm not convinced that there is such a thing as a "strut repair kit", one thing that might have caused this comment is, that some time in that car's life, someone - maybe other than a competent VW dealership, has worked on one or both sides of that suspension. One other possibility is, that there was an issue concerning that area of early cars which lead to a change of a part number or parts numbers, one of these parts was the top bearing, so maybe it or they have failed and that would lead to some extra movement at the top of these struts or strut.
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Re: front strut.

Post by iichel »

sometimes a set of a strut bearing (the rubber thing), the screws and the top bearing (the metal thing) is sold as a 'repair kit'.
Takaboby
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Re: front strut.

Post by Takaboby »

Any advice on how I can confirm/investigate this “advisory information”? My 2013 6r polo has an upper retaining nut, and stop plate retaining nut, could the “slight movement” be down to insufficient torque?
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Re: front strut.

Post by RUM4MO »

In order from the top down, there is:- top nut which is a self locking nut - top plate - lower nut with a stepped section - top rubber mounting - top bearing - then maybe a spacer, I've forgotten some VW marques do so don't - spring top plate - spring - strut.

Now if that car has the early, now superseded on new build, top bearing, and that is a small ball bearing, it could be that that bearing has failed and so allowed the lower stepped nut to loosen - so that would allow the top self locking nut to now appear to be slack. Tightening that top nut would not now be a smart idea without examining the complete assembly - and that will mean stripping it down to find out the root cause of this problem, sorry no short cuts there.

Edit:- what is the history of this car, ie did you buy it secondhand and if so when and at what mileage, and what it its current mileage?
Takaboby
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Re: front strut.

Post by Takaboby »

Yeah, 2nd hand at 3yrs and 36k. It had taken a bit of abuse. I’m aware of the labour involved in removing the strut. My question now - should I Renew strut,springs and all parts, or get a couple of bearings/rubber mounts (repair kit). Can I be sure the problem is in these bearings?
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Re: front strut.

Post by RUM4MO »

A very hard question to give the one correct answer to, but:- living up here probably means that you will suffer the first broken spring, due in part to excessive salt being used in winter, by the time that car is between 6>8 years old! So, maybe work out if you will still own that car when it falls into that age group, then if you will still be owning it, replace the lot in the knowledge that you should be resetting the clock on that sort of failure.

Edit:- put it this way, when I was looking after my daughter's late 2009 Ibiza while she worked abroad in KL, it always had a slight knock at the front which I could not trace, but I knew that some parts had been revised since that car was built, also there were just too many complaints from people that replaced their own front springs, maybe for better ones - and these complaints all pointed to the strut piston seal(s) starting to leak soon after these cars had been worked on, so, when that late 2009 Ibiza broke its RHS front spring at 7.5 years old and 42K miles, I made the decision to replace the lot, struts and springs bought from ECP, everything else from either VW or VW Van centre.
Takaboby
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Re: front strut.

Post by Takaboby »

I should add that it’s a 13 plate. Clock is now just under 50k. The mot was two days ago. I’ll be DIY with the work so I was thinking it makes sense to “reset the clock” as you suggest. Been looking at Sachs and as you know, the cost mounts up. Just hope that I’m not tempted to stop at replacing the bearing if that’s the only thing that looks shot! Any further info/advice will be appreciated guys.
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Re: front strut.

Post by RUM4MO »

One thing to remember is, ECP, if that is where you are buying Sachs from, accept returned parts within 12 months of you buying them, so if you bought all the parts for both sides and found that it was only the top bearing, then you could return the springs and struts - if you don't mind repeating a lot of that work if or when the first spring breaks. I returned an AC compressor about 6 months ago that I bought in haste!

Edit:- as this just a advisory, why not just keep an eye on ECP discounts and only buy when they are "biggest" - and sort it when the weather is warmer? If it was down right dangerous that car would not have been given a new LOT certificate?
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Re: front strut.

Post by Polonut »

Surely the easy route was to ask the garage for fuller details whilst you were there. I suspect they are referring to the top strut mounts - this is not a difficult job to do.
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Re: front strut.

Post by RUM4MO »

Polonut wrote: Sat Jan 20, 2018 12:38 am Surely the easy route was to ask the garage for fuller details whilst you were there. I suspect they are referring to the top strut mounts - this is not a difficult job to do.
I'd think that any MOT station would hand out the same desciption as it ties in with a paragraph in the MOT testers book, so really it is what they said it is, and I'd doubt if any MOT garage would take to time to further check/prove what the root cause was.

It might be an easy job, but it involves getting each strut out and off the car as the rubber top mounting is retained by the same stepped nut that retains the spring top platform and top ball bearing assembly, I've been there done that for another reason (broken spring).

The late 2009 SEAT Ibiza 1.4 86PS that I worked on last year had absolutely no wear/tear issues on the rubber top mounting, the top ball bearing, or the strut, but I replaced the lot while I was fitting new springs to avoid any future repairs needing done in that area while my daughter owned that car, which she bought new and will probably sell within a couple of years, she uses that car daily so does not need to have me saving her money but with the same ammount of work, for her to lose the use of it in the possible near future while I replace any bits that were missed first time round - and I don't need to do all that work again on that car.
Takaboby
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Re: front strut.

Post by Takaboby »

I will wait until I’ve have a good loook before I buy anything, but I’ll check ECP - thanks for that Rum
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