Strut bearing replacement

[jasengine]

Well I just thought I would share my experience on front suspension strut bearing/rubber bush replacement as it was a of a job!

I had a knocking noise from the front nearside when going over small bumps etc and reading threads here, it seems that others have had this problem and its come back to this area.
So I got proper OEM bearings, nuts and rubber bushes from SEAT, and today got the front of the car on axle stands, wheels off and started on the drivers side.... To cut a long story short there is not enough room to get the suspension arm lower enough to get the strut out: the drive shaft fowls the subframe! The proper SEAT/VW/Audi etc method apparently is to unbolt the inner end of the driveshaft from the gearbox to allow more downward movement of the arm!
So I am a bit peed off by this point, luckily this side is not worn, so I did the other side which came off pretty easily as the drive shaft is shorter and the angle of it allows the arm to lower further.
Looks like I will have to do the drivers side as well though, as the new parts make the passengers side about 10mm higher than the drivers side, although I would have thought this will settle down over time. But I have had to order a set of multi-spline sockets to take off this driveshaft (couldn't be a standard allan-key type could it!), so the front is running on new rubbers & bearings.

What a ball ache of a job though....

 

[Robb1990]

Could you not of taken the trut out altogether? Not sure what the set-up is like on these, but to to the top mount on my old polo, i needed to use sping compressors to undo the top bolt holding everything tight.

 

[Willie]

On the LCR (which has an ARB, don't know if your car does) with spring compressors and the ARB unbolted this was a relatively easy job. The rear is a joy to do.

 

[james walker]

yep, unbolt the arb and it drops enough to get the strut out...

piece of pisst job to do...

 

[jasengine]

Yep, I undid the ARB bolt on the drivers side and yes the arm did drop a bit, but it wasn't enough. I could see the drive shaft was against the subframe. So I can see why the inner drive shaft coupling has to be unbolted...

 

[Willie]

Fair enough, obviously different to the LCR

 

[jasengine]

Ah, could it be that the LCR springs are shorter, so the struts will clear?
I will be replacing the drivers side at the weekend so I will take some pics for info for others. As it happends, replacing this bearing and bush did not stop the knocking sound So I think new wishbone mounts and ball joints next!

 

[cordoba lad]

have you tried spring compressors? that would shorten the length and should allow it to come out surely.

 

[crazyshad1]

I had the same problem on my LCR, passenger side came out fine. On the drivers side the drive shaft fowled the subframe. I frmoved the track rod end, hub nut and ball joint and dropped the hub to allow the strut to be removed.

 

[jasengine]

have you tried spring compressors? that would shorten the length and should allow it to come out surely.

I expect that would be one method, but the spring compressor I have borrowed is a big bulky thing and I couldn't get it around the spring properly with it on the car!

 

[jasengine]

Just another note about this knocking noise:
This might be a long shot but if I grab the wheel or brake disc (with wheel off!) when jacked up, and twist the wheel left to right there is a bit of 'play' in the steering. I know there is an adjusting bolt in the steering rack to take out any play so perhaps that could cause a knocking when going over bumps, but I would have thought this knock would be felt through the steering wheel

 

[Robb1990]

sounds like track rod end ball joint to me if there's some play in the wheel. Check the boot for a split. Easy fix though Just Mark everything up with tip-ex where they are now, (the nut is a locking nut to secure against the track rod end.) Slacken the nut off up the steering arm, Mark where the track rod end comes to. unscrew it off, new one on up to the mark then tighten the nut, then go for a 4 wheel alignment check as the tracking will probably be wrong, for £30 its worth a check.

 

[jasengine]

I didn't notice any slack at the ball joint end...I'll have to check

 

[Robb1990]

You wont usually see it, just if like you say you get play in the steering, its usually track rod end as there's nothing else turbing the wheel that can wear like that lol. What mileage has it done? tbh if your under there, its worth doing them just for the sake of it as they are cheap to replace, £30 a pair IIRC

 

[jasengine]

Cars done 117k so far! Might well do those as well then.

I have read on TDIclub that the knocking could be the ARB bushes....