WTF?? Bearings falling out of the suspension strut!!?!?

[Jim27]

Hmmm.... Little metal bearings have started appearing at the bottom of the TDi Sport's driver's side front wheel. Shortly thereafter the spring on the same corner has snapped at the top, with the uppermost half coil shearing off from the body of the spring and the damper's upper plate has slid down the shocker itself (inside the spring).

I've never taken the suspension unit out on the car but I'm guessing that there's a mounting plate of some sort at the top of the shocker to allow the spring/damper to turn with the steering rack, and that somehow it's sh@gged and the bearings have come out (with absolutely NO sign of any grease on them, which is worrying) and with the inevitable seizing of the mounting plate the spring has now sheared due to being twisted back and forth by the steering movements.

Bugger

For the mo I'm assuming that the upper strut shocker mounting plate (or whatever it's called) is a seperate unit to the shocker itself and I'll therefore need to replace just the spring and this upper bearing-filled mounting plate jobbie, yes?

So I've got a few questions now:

1) Where can I get a replacement standard front spring?
2) Where can I get a replacement upper mounting plate (or whatever the thing is that the bearings have come out of)?
3) Any idea on what these will cost?

Am hoping to get this fixed ASAP so would appreciate any pointers as to where I could get these parts mega-quick!

Cheers guys!

Jim

[omicron]

Sounds like an utterly bollocksed strut top mount.

[Buzby]

Euro car parts http://www.eurocarparts.com do the strut top mount for about £10 but not the spring.

Your best bet is probably your local dealer, more expensive but you'll probably get the parts next day.

Did you know it was going or did it just fail, as Ive got the same model..

[Jim27]

Euro car parts http://www.eurocarparts.com do the strut top mount for about £10 but not the spring.

Your best bet is probably your local dealer, more expensive but you'll probably get the parts next day.

Did you know it was going or did it just fail, as Ive got the same model..

No indications of something being wrong initially, although the alarm went off in the middle of the night when no-one was around, which I now suspect was the spring giving up the ghost and the -BANG- and jolt to the car set the alarm off. The bearings started appearing on the floor after that AKAIK...

The part of the spring coil that snapped and slid down the damper to rest on the lower spring plate rattled an awful lot when driving around (initially sounded like there was something loose in the door!) and there was often a pronounced BANG when turning the steering full lock. This is what prompted the inspection and found the broken spring, putting two and two together and realising that the bearings weren't actually from some little 12 year olds with particularly viscous new toys/BB guns etc.

[yorks GT TDI]

bearing top is around £12 and spring around £35 for dealer

[Jim27]

Right. Got the spring/damper out last night. That was fun - not

Like a nitwit I undid the three top bolts first, then managed to remove the big single bolt that clamps the hub to the bottom of the damper. The damper was jammed solid in the hub and would not - abso-fecking-lutely - shift. In the end I had to jack the lower suspension arm up and then use a long socket extension to brace the bottom of the damper to the floor, then remove the jack, wedge a 4' long piece of wood against the top of the hub and proceed to welly the living bejeezus out of it for about half an hour or so, until the hub finally slid off the bottom of the damper.

Hint for anyone else considering removing the damper/spring - leave it bolted to the strut tower - i.e. remove the three top bolts LAST! With the bottom big bolt removed you can just tap the hub down without having to fart around bracing the damper from underneath. In my case, the spring had snapped towards the top and once I undid the three top bolts, the top edge of the spring slid up and over the top mounting plate, meaning I couldn't just refit the three top bolts once I realised that I'd gone about it all back to front...

There's no obvious cause for the spring to have snapped. The car is a 52 plate 1.9 TDi Sport and has only got 9,000 miles on the clock, so it's a bit of a mystery. It's out of warranty so no help from Mr VW but I can't see the harm in writing them a letter to ask why a 3 year old spring would snap with just 9,000 miles under it's belt...

On inspection, the only damage is to the spring, and the lost bearings from the metal-lined plastic ball bearing disc that sits between the spring and the top plate. The spring is available tomorrow from Smith Knight Fay but the bearing disc is on back-order Looking at it, it ain't a sealed unit so I've contacted a local ball bearing company to source some replacement bearings as the unit itself is fine - just needs the bearings replaced. For general info, the bearings are 6.9mm diameter and appear to be stainless steel (non-corrosion, I guess).

Soooo... hopefully the bearing place can get hold of 20 - 30 replacements tomorrow and I'll put it all back together tomorrow night.

Any hints or tips on refitting, especially the right order to do thing and how to best squeeze the damperback into the hub (!) would be MUCH appreciated!!

[yorks GT TDI]

if your car is just over 3 years vw will pay for some of the repair

[Jim27]

Well we can see what they say but it was a personal import from Europe so not so sure how they'll like that...

Plus the sum total cost to fix is roughly two evenings of my time and £35-40 for the spring, plus a few quid for some new bearings

And I got to help my Mum out, which is always nice

[Jim27]

Oh the fun....

The 6.9mm hardened steel bearings used in the suspension axial ball bearing plate are non-industry standard. A couple of ball bearing companies locally managed to find an exact match in the stock database of a company called Spheric Trafalgar. They called to ask for some and when they mentioned "6.9mm hardened steel bearings" the guys on the other end went very uiet, dead cagey and wouldn't talk to them about the bearings, let alone sell them some.

The irony is that they're actually listed as being specifically for automotive use.

Speaking to a few other people in the bearing industry no-one has ever heard of a 6.9mm bearing. It looks like it was specced deliberately as non-standard for VW, and assuming that Spheric Trafalgar is their supplier, ST have been tied up with a restrictive covenant so that we're forced to have to get new replacement parts throguh VW rather than rebuild a perfectly serviceable bearing unit.

Sooo.... I went over to Smith Knight Fay to collect the spring and the chap there said that the axial bearing plate I was after had come in too Miracle!

On retrieving it from the stock room, however, it turns out someone put the wrong stock label on it as it's actually the top mount plate The ball bearing plate is still on back-order so I may get hold of one towards the back end of next week

Ho hum...

Last question - any hints / tips / advice on refitting the damper/spring etc. Looks like it'll be a pig to get the bottom of the damper properly slotted into the hub Any tips?

[Poloracer]

sod that!!

upgrade the suspension instead????

[Poloracer]

fitted suspension/ removed coilovers on my 9n and 9n3 lots of times, any help call me, pm me first, and ill give ya my number

[Jim27]

Righty ho

Got the job done this weekend - was a bit of a pig and I lost a few chunks of skin and a pint or two of blood to the brake disc backing plate Ah well....

One last question - the rubber gaitor that fastens into the top mount is loose at the bottom. Can someone tell me how this is supposed to be secured as I've pulled it down so that the end slips over the bottom part of the damper but the 'pull' from the top means that it won't just sit their - it pulls back up and exposes the bottom of the damper...?

Anyone?

[Jim27]

Could still do with a little advice on the issue of the rubber gaitor and how it's secured at the bottom...?

Anyone?