front strut and spring

[scotspie501]

My sons car failed its MOT for broken spring and weak strut .usual VW bolts so hard to come out and rusted but got there but when all the bolts were out so difficult to get the strut assy out

had the car so high but had to twist and kept hitting the top mounting off the body

is there a knack to getting the strut out ,do you need to take the drive shaft out

any ideas

[CarbonChaos]

Remove the lower ball joint from the lower arm (3 bolts), remove the drive shaft nut,remove the brake caliper , take the hub assembly with the shock as one unit then split once out of the car.
Replace the spring and shock , replace the top mount as they always feel gritty (or clean, regrease and reuse) refit.

I don’t think you will get the shock high enough to get it out of the hub with it still on the driveshaft and bottom arm

[RUM4MO]

One side can be done with the drive shaft still in, the LHS or near side, this is to do with the length of the drive shaft as on the RHS or off side, things get fouled by the lower track control arm.

My first fixing of any VW Group product was my wife's September 2002 9N Polo 1.4 16V 75PS, it started to crave attention by the time it was 4 years old, and when just over 5 years old it broke a front spring, the RHS or off side one - doing that "simple" job in mid winter even in garage, took a lot more time than it should have, nothing by nothing wanted to come apart. I had a good selection of tools and worked on mainly Fords before that, and one very nice VX Cav GSI 4X4 2000 16V, but I needed to start buying in lots of extra tools and even a good tap and die set!

If not available on this forum, check up on doing this job on www.briskoda.net and seatcupra.net as Fabia and Ibiza of same age are same/similar cars, and there is a suggested list of tools and torques on one or both of them.

After doing that job, in early January, I bought all the bits that I needed to do the same on the other side, only keeping the "okay" spring for "just in case" and "just in case" came when that car was 10 years old. I'd always replace the top mounts, top bearing and all the bolts and nuts as you really do not want to need to get in there again! Remember this is the hard side, the LHS or near side will be a lot easier as you now know the score and have the tools - and the drive shaft does not need removing on that side.
I've since had to do that job on a late 2009 SEAT Ibiza, in summer, that later car was a lot easier to take apart at 9 years old though.
Currently, I'd think, the clock is running out for me to do that job on my wife's August 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS SEL, so I'm not free of doing this job yet!

[RUM4MO]

A few tools that you might not have that make this job easier are:-
1) thin wall bi-hex deep socket 36mm similar to Laser Tools but cheaper if possible, for the front drive shaft nut - fit new nut.
2) hub splitter/expander tool similar to Laser Tools 3396 but cheaper if possible.
3) XZN M14 spline bit to hold the head of the strut clamping bolt - fit new nut - I also bought a new bolt.
4) long hex bits (allen key type of things), to stop the strut piston rod rotating, I can't say what size as original and aftermarket will be different sizes.

I played safe and bought new plastic shrouds that are used outboard of the outer CV joint on the drive shaft - they attempt to protect that area from road rubbish.

Be very careful and clearly mark the area where the lower swivels are located on the TCA as the fixing holes are oversized to allow for wheel geometry adjustment mess that up and the car will not run true and will trash tyres.

[littlepolo]

Be very careful and clearly mark the area where the lower swivels are located on the TCA as the fixing holes are oversized to allow for wheel geometry adjustment mess that up and the car will not run true and will trash tyres.

This is a good point. Even though I did that, eventually some tyre wear showed up.

[scotspie501]

HI All

Thanks for the info ,would you believe that every component I removed at least one of the bolts were seized or rounded
also the drive shaft was seized in the hub.I had to get a drop link and a new bottom ball joint and a new CV joint as trying to get the CV joint out the threads were damaged beyond repair
that CV was seized big style ,didnt know about the bottom ball joint and the steering geometry I will look out for the tyres

I had to take the full drive shaft out and strip it on the bench as no way was that coming out in the car ,tried brass drift and had to you use steel drift

but all built up only issue is the airbag light is on and i,m hoping the garage can clear with his Bosch diagnostic system as I cant clear with Vag -com Light

it keeps coming up with to many communication errors

will keep you all posted

[RUM4MO]

Do this job was my first need to work on a VW Group product, back in 2006ish, on a 2002 Polo bought new - I was an eye opener, I've worked on Fords and a single VX Cav GSI over my previous 25 years of motoring, and nothing came close to the misery that job brought me!!!!!

But looking on the bright side, when I did that job on a late 2009 Ibiza, it was a lot easier, ie everything came off a lot easier, and not just due to having previous experience and all the necessary tools.

One thing to always remember, these Polos and Ibiza are just, underneath, Skoda Fabias and that means that all the common parts are made by Skoda suppliers in CZ and in general the quality of the steel is or was then quite shocking - as both of us have discovered, I ended up needing to cut bits off most of the lock nuts and attempt to split them as the plastic locking elements had hardened so much so that did not help at all - horrible horrible horrible! The tap and die set I bought helped a lot as you can at least clean up the exposed section of threads and that helps quite a bit.