Shock absorvers, how long do they last?
- Thread starter dm222
- Start date
Afternoon,
Lots of things will come into it but we generally after 65,000 miles-isa they'll be past best but it's not unusual for them to last a lot longer.
Damian @ DPM Performance
Lots of things will come into it but we generally after 65,000 miles-isa they'll be past best but it's not unusual for them to last a lot longer.
Damian @ DPM Performance
Should generally last 40 - 60,000 miles. Try the 'bounce' test. Push each corner firmly down, the vehicle should bounce up once and settle. If it bounces several times then the dampers (correct term for shock absorber) are worn.
Check for obvious signs of weeping oil at the seal. I have a rear damper go on my last car (VW Polo which uses the same platform as Ibiza) it had failed suddenly at the base where it is welded. Easy to replace and I recommend that you swap in pairs. Cost was £55 for both and less than an hour to replace. You may want to replace the upper mounting at the same time as it contains a rubber bush which may have started to perish (£25 a pair).
Front dampers are a different proposition altogether. They are an integral part of the strut and take much longer to replace. You need to remove the strut from the hub, compress the spring (potentially dangerous) and then swap bump stop, spring & top strut mount over to the new strut.
Many brands are available, VAG use German dampers made by Sachs as OE. Sachs dampers are usually available on ebay or from CarParts4Less (subsidiary of EuroCarParts).
Check for obvious signs of weeping oil at the seal. I have a rear damper go on my last car (VW Polo which uses the same platform as Ibiza) it had failed suddenly at the base where it is welded. Easy to replace and I recommend that you swap in pairs. Cost was £55 for both and less than an hour to replace. You may want to replace the upper mounting at the same time as it contains a rubber bush which may have started to perish (£25 a pair).
Front dampers are a different proposition altogether. They are an integral part of the strut and take much longer to replace. You need to remove the strut from the hub, compress the spring (potentially dangerous) and then swap bump stop, spring & top strut mount over to the new strut.
Many brands are available, VAG use German dampers made by Sachs as OE. Sachs dampers are usually available on ebay or from CarParts4Less (subsidiary of EuroCarParts).
https://vimeo.com/187549895
https://vimeo.com/187560884
It appears that I have a new and an old shock absorver in my car? What would be the consequences of that?
https://vimeo.com/187560884
It appears that I have a new and an old shock absorver in my car? What would be the consequences of that?
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Well I did not have a problem replacing the front dampers on my daughter's late 2009 Ibiza 1.4 16V 86PS, I just lifted the black plastic cover up a bit at each end one at a time, lift off the black plastic cover, use a hex key to stop the piston rod turning and undo the top nut.
Now, I am lucky enough to have a "drive through" socket set, and so I just fitted the correct size of socket to the top nut, then fitted the correct sized hex key bit above that and took the top nut off.
Edit:- other things that need doing to replace these dampers, on the RHS of the car, with normal suspension fitted, you will need to remove the hub nut so that the shaft can be removed from that side to allow the suspension to drop far down, if you don't do that, the drive shaft will end up bottoming out on the track control arm - that will not happened on the LHS of the car. Also, you will need to open the clamped top area of the hubs slightly to release the bottom of the damper from the top of the hub assembly - there is a VW Group tool for that job, it makes life very easy!
Now, I am lucky enough to have a "drive through" socket set, and so I just fitted the correct size of socket to the top nut, then fitted the correct sized hex key bit above that and took the top nut off.
Edit:- other things that need doing to replace these dampers, on the RHS of the car, with normal suspension fitted, you will need to remove the hub nut so that the shaft can be removed from that side to allow the suspension to drop far down, if you don't do that, the drive shaft will end up bottoming out on the track control arm - that will not happened on the LHS of the car. Also, you will need to open the clamped top area of the hubs slightly to release the bottom of the damper from the top of the hub assembly - there is a VW Group tool for that job, it makes life very easy!
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Sorry I missed this posting, yes, if you are talking about what you have found after lifting up a corner of the plastic strip below the windscreen, you need to remove a plastic rivet on each side before lifting that plastic strip up a bit. So, yes, on top of the strut all you will see is a black plastic cover, it is just covering the top of the strut with a "peg" fitting down into the hex end of the piston, just pull that up and off.
Originally I attempted to remove the long black plastic rain water cover from that area, but after taking the wiper arms off I could not get it to move, so I looked into just lifting the corners up to get access to the top of the struts - and that worked.
These struts have 2 nuts on them, the lower nut keeps it all together, the top nut is just used to fix that assembly to the body of the car.
Despite what you think, when reassembling these struts, fit the top mounting before fitting the lower nut, it will look like the top mounting is not really being held in place very well, but it is being held well enough and it will get trapped in place by the top nut after the strut is fitted back onto the car.
I think that you seem to be able to take access to workshop documents, but I just used a Haynes repair manual for a VW 6R Polo which is identical in these areas and more!
Originally I attempted to remove the long black plastic rain water cover from that area, but after taking the wiper arms off I could not get it to move, so I looked into just lifting the corners up to get access to the top of the struts - and that worked.
These struts have 2 nuts on them, the lower nut keeps it all together, the top nut is just used to fix that assembly to the body of the car.
Despite what you think, when reassembling these struts, fit the top mounting before fitting the lower nut, it will look like the top mounting is not really being held in place very well, but it is being held well enough and it will get trapped in place by the top nut after the strut is fitted back onto the car.
I think that you seem to be able to take access to workshop documents, but I just used a Haynes repair manual for a VW 6R Polo which is identical in these areas and more!
Does you car bounces for like 5 seconds when you close the door. The video is not good but...
https://meocloud.pt/link/15374f2e-d739-4e8a-aa2b-13fdbf50e229/V_20170824_124341_vHDR_Auto.mp4/
https://meocloud.pt/link/15374f2e-d739-4e8a-aa2b-13fdbf50e229/V_20170824_124341_vHDR_Auto.mp4/
I'd think that most of that movement will be due to tyres and rubber suspension mountings?
Edit:- when I replaced the front struts on the late 2009 Ibiza with 45K miles, one of them felt a bit wrong when you de-pressed the piston the first time, after that it was okay(ish), not really a technical comment maybe, but I was concerned mainly with the corrosion on these struts + stories about struts starting to leak after people had handled them when replacing springs + there had been a bit of a knocking sound which I ended up not hearing or ignoring - which might have been related to a worn/sticking strut piston. The top bearings seemed to be okay but I replaced them along with the top rubber mount, and, due to never having replaced struts on that type of car before (different set up to the earlier Polo/Ibiza ect), I replaced the upper spring plate - that was probably not required but I definitely did not want to rework that end of that car any time in the near future.
Edit:- when I replaced the front struts on the late 2009 Ibiza with 45K miles, one of them felt a bit wrong when you de-pressed the piston the first time, after that it was okay(ish), not really a technical comment maybe, but I was concerned mainly with the corrosion on these struts + stories about struts starting to leak after people had handled them when replacing springs + there had been a bit of a knocking sound which I ended up not hearing or ignoring - which might have been related to a worn/sticking strut piston. The top bearings seemed to be okay but I replaced them along with the top rubber mount, and, due to never having replaced struts on that type of car before (different set up to the earlier Polo/Ibiza ect), I replaced the upper spring plate - that was probably not required but I definitely did not want to rework that end of that car any time in the near future.
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