How do I change front springs?

[phil739]

hi

can someone please give me a quick step by step guide on how to change the front springs on my 01 tdi

as i have seem to have snapped one

sorry if this sounds quite an easy job for some of you , but have never done anything like this before

i have the new springs and have borrowed some spring compressors

thanks in advance

phil

 

[brad1]

hi mate
quite simple

1.) jack up car
2.)remove wheel obviosuly lol
3.)undo the droplink for the anti roll bar
4.)undo bolt at bottom of suspension
5.)undo bolt on top mount
6.)use spring compressors and compress the spring, then you should be able to remove the shock
7.)to replace use this in reverse order obviously putting back together and not undo it lol

hope you get the idea

 

[Curious Chris]

to get the nuts off the top of the shock absorber if u dont have a windy gun use a sparkplug socket (remove the rubber from inside it) with a 7mm allen key pushed down the middle this way the allen key stops the shock from spinning as you undo the top mount bolts

 

[phil739]

push the allen key down the middle of where???

thanks so far

 

[Curious Chris]

the sparkplug socket, then use a spanner to undo the sparkplug socket

 

[Nutkin]

i full on eric daled when i tried this.

But ill give you a hint, When you got compressors and all that bollocks done and oyu cant get it out the hub then smack upwards on the shock with a hammer!

 

[phil739]

right understand now about the allen key

i full on eric daled when i tried this.

?????

thanks again all

 

[Curious Chris]

eric daled = failed

 

[bozzzydmc]

Not trying to sound like im teaching you to suck eggs but be careful with spring compressors .. i know of too many injuries caused by not taking enough care .

Good luck buddy.

 

[Willie]

When fitting the spring compressers onto the new springs tink about how high up you are fitting them as they might hit the top of the turret stopping you from releasing these

 

[Markyboyt]

Not trying to sound like im teaching you to suck eggs but be careful with spring compressors .. i know of too many injuries caused by not taking enough care .

Good luck buddy.

Exactly my thoughts when I read the title of this thread and incidentally the advice I came in to give.

Use so much precaution with the spring compressors especially if they look like this

Think about how much weight the coils can hold, and think how much tension is in them when compressed even more, I won't actually use the ones in the pic above, too risky for my liking as they can so easily slip and often do, we use the one below at work which is much safer.

 

[phil739]

oh dear
they are the ones in the first picture

will do little by little

thanks for all your advice
will let you know how i get on , thats if am not in hospital

 

[Markyboyt]

oh dear
they are the ones in the first picture

will do little by little

thanks for all your advice
will let you know how i get on , thats if am not in hospital

Go easy then dude and excercise precaution, obviously dont use them until you have the strut off on the floor, and if at any point they look like there about to slip, obviously dont try and stop it with your hands, just move.

If your doing it by hand and also with them compressors I would also crack the top nut off before I started to compress the spring just because it will help to keep it firm while you do

 

[phil739]

dont think i will need to compress the old spring much anyway before removing the nut as its snapped and is in 2 bits ...lol

your starting to make me think i should of paid the garage now

stop worrying me and tell me all will be ok ..lol

 

[Markyboyt]

dont think i will need to compress the old spring much anyway before removing the nut as its snapped and is in 2 bits ...lol

your starting to make me think i should of paid the garage now

stop worrying me and tell me all will be ok ..lol

A lot of people use them successfully, just use them sensibly and with caution and you should be ok, just use common sense aswell, like if the springs compressed, hitting the strut with a hammer or something could jar the compressors off.

Also another tip is when your using them obviously you will have one each side of the spring, wind them evenly to keep the load as even on each one as possible

 

[phil739]

all done

a massive thankyou to all that gave advice , just saved me a big garage bill and now i have learnt how
to do it myself

every thing went ok
the compressors only sprung off once ..lol
and know body mentioned that i could pull the silver bit on the shock upwards to make it longer , took me an hour to try and get the springs compressed to not even near , then a mate turned up and said why dont you just pull the silver bit upwards , after doing this i had compressed the springs nearly 2 inches more than i needed ......lol

thanks again

 

[LEE69]

then a mate turned up and said why dont you just pull the silver bit upwards

Yeah i meant to say

 

[bozzzydmc]

Top job matey !

Scary when they come off thou eh... dont want that whacking you in the face like someone i know ......

all done

a massive thankyou to all that gave advice , just saved me a big garage bill and now i have learnt how
to do it myself

every thing went ok
the compressors only sprung off once ..lol
and know body mentioned that i could pull the silver bit on the shock upwards to make it longer , took me an hour to try and get the springs compressed to not even near , then a mate turned up and said why dont you just pull the silver bit upwards , after doing this i had compressed the springs nearly 2 inches more than i needed ......lol

thanks again

 

[Markyboyt]

all done

a massive thankyou to all that gave advice , just saved me a big garage bill and now i have learnt how
to do it myself

every thing went ok
the compressors only sprung off once ..lol
and know body mentioned that i could pull the silver bit on the shock upwards to make it longer , took me an hour to try and get the springs compressed to not even near , then a mate turned up and said why dont you just pull the silver bit upwards , after doing this i had compressed the springs nearly 2 inches more than i needed ......lol

thanks again

Glad you got it sorted and with your face intact too, talk about having your cake and eating it

 

[nevwdr]

Thanks all, I just replaced my FRont Sping after it snapped. This post was very useful, but I have some further tips to any others who need to do this task.

1. There are two bolts on the top of the damper shaft that you need to take off to do the job. The first one is simply the retainer for the top plate in the engine bay. As described you need to remove this to lower the whock out of the car later. The second nut retains the top of the sping and is undeer preseure until the spring is compressed. Dont remove this yet!!!! You need to remove it later though to install the new spring!

2. Once you have undone the bolts at the bottom of the damper you will find that it will be stuck firmly in the casting. Someone suggested hitting it with a hammer - DONT do this. VW actually have a special tool to expand the slot at the back of the casting which frees the damper. BUT you can just use a flat screwdriver bit a large one where the screwdriver flat is the same size as the Hex shaft. Insert this in the slot behind the casting towards the bottom, just down from the bolt hole. Turn it with a spabber a half turn and the pressure is released and the damper can be eased out!!!! I found this info here:
uk-mkivs.net /forums /p /274161 /1804287 .aspx and respect goes to mred!

Finally, if you have never done this before and like me your sping snapped at the top coil, you might not realise the sping has to be retained by the metal plate at the top of the damper (the one held in place by the second bolt!)! I stupidly did not work this out until I tried to install it again ad wondered how the rubber bung was gonna get through theh sing! Duh!!!!!!!!!!

Good luck to all others a simple job for anyone!