dampers shot?

[Deejay]

How do you determine if a suspension damper is shot or not other than looking for obvious signs of wear & tear leaks etc, and if for this example you now had the damper in your hand, cursing the cold weather and numerous cuts on your fingers?

 

[Saul]

if you can compress it by hand a fair way and it either doesnt come back up, or very slowly, its knacked, usually accompanied by a oily squirty type sound

 

[Deejay]

ta, so on the reverse side of that a damper in perfect working order should be difficult to compress and rise very quickly from a compressed state?

 

[Saul]

yer, tis very hard to compress a fully working damper by hand

 

[mik]

yer, tis very hard to compress a fully working damper by hand

Depends if it's preloaded or not. Most front "gas" struts are, but not all.

A knackered damper will not travel along it's length smoothly, and will almost certainly have "slop" when you cahnge direction (a slight amount of movemnet before the resistance is restored).

 

[ibizacupra]

rebuilding my pss9's currently for different spring setup etc... and surprisingly undert all the road crud they were'nt in too bad a condition... better than the 1st set (warrantied) which seized and seals went less than 12months into ownership.
3 years on these and they are firm to push in, progressive and the adjustments work. (gas dampers)

 

[RobT]

If the dampers are oil filled, and the seals are shot, they leak - easy to spot, and if you adjust them to softest setting so you can pull the rod in and out by hand, often there will feel to be bubbles in the fluid inside and the rod will be a bit jerky in action - shot.

Ave it

Rob

 

[Deejay]

If the dampers are oil filled, and the seals are shot, they leak - easy to spot, and if you adjust them to softest setting so you can pull the rod in and out by hand, often there will feel to be bubbles in the fluid inside and the rod will be a bit jerky in action - shot.

Ave it

Rob

I can push em in by hand and they stay in a compressed state, so like you say looks like i need new ones, dampers in question being the bilstiens as found with the h&r cup kit.

anyone know where i can get me some new seperate H&R/Bilstien front dampers then, or am i looking at a whole new kit again

 

[RobT]

They will stay in - its only the spring that will return them to full length - if they stay in it dont mean they are shot

 

[Deejay]

They will stay in - its only the spring that will return them to full length - if they stay in it dont mean they are shot

ok- just looked at em again.

although both dampers seem to have no visible signs of leaks, one is jerky through the slow pulling up and down by hand action im doing and squelchy sounding. The other seems not as bad although not a perfect smooth action?

just so you know, this has probably been like this for a good while, so any leaks have probably happened ages ago. Why myself and the upteen VAG specialist that ive had looking at this prob haven't spotted it is a question for another day

ps- the H&R kit is a fixed kit, no height or damper adjust.

 

[ibizacupra]

squelchy sound is bad. and different between them is bad too.

 

[Deejay]

squelchy sound is bad. and different between them is bad too.

thought so.

I've made my decision to replace now, so where can I get similar/same damper replacements from?

 

[Saul]

think H&R importer is motor sport wheels