THSCC Forums

Indeed. The first time you mess with it, you may start planning an armed trip to Wolfsburg. After that, you'll have a growing pile of VW specific tools. And know exactly where (and what) to hit with the hammer.

http://www.vwforum.com/forums/f15/front ... ade-67321/


How to get around using torque to yield bolts on the front end work. I am on vwforums under my own name.

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hey yall,watch this...

It is a MkIV?

I know nothing first hand about them first hand.

I heard if you lower them too much or otherwise get the front end down low you can destroy your oil pan pretty easily, though.

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2004 Subaru Forester XT
1992 Sunburst Mazda Miata
1990 Mazda RX-7 (work in progress)
2000 Xterra SE

Seems to me a B12 Sentra would be a good choice, as time has proven, but to each his own.

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

H&R made a coil over kit for the MkIII that I was looking at that could raise the car by 3/4 of an inch in the front and back or lower it by an inch, too.

H&R part number 29865.6

If you're going to fight with the suspension, do it once!

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2004 Subaru Forester XT
1992 Sunburst Mazda Miata
1990 Mazda RX-7 (work in progress)
2000 Xterra SE

Well the good news is that Ricky was wrong on how hard it is to do the front struts. The Internet can be a wonderful tool. It seems that the lower ball joint is attached to the control arm with 3 small bolts and a nut plate. Simply pop the axle out, drop the ball joint and undo the top of the strut and presto-chango the strut is out. The really hard part was the top nuts on the top of the struts which are recessed inside a top mount "cup" and there is a hex socket in the end of the strut shaft that must be prevented from turning while using a socket to loosen the nut. It hurt my feelings to use a pipe wrench on my shiny socket to turn it while the allen wrench held the shock shaft. The real PITA came when the replacement struts from KYB had 2 flats on the shaft end instead of a hex socket. An impact wrench was able to run the nut on, but getting it back off will be stupid hard.
Speaking of getting it back off, there looks to be something a little amiss with the final assembly. All of the parts are back in place, but I don't recall the top strut mount looking like it does now....ahhh the mysteries of working on new German stuff.
The rear shocks went on in less than 10 minutes (after jacking up).
Regards,
Charlie G

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1998 BMW Z3
1987 BMW 325is
2000 BMW
1996 F250 Turbo Diesel

Both times I've removed the struts on my bug, it was a serious pain in the ass. That lower ball joint doesn't pop out nearly as easily on the bug, 'tho if you can get the plate (bottom of the joint) to rotate clear of the lower control arm, the job gets a lot easier. However, the control arm won't drop as far as it should (sayeth the internet and VAG) so the strut won't clear the knuckle -- unless I fully compress the springs, and that's a lot of wrenching in a very tiny space. The second time I was checking everything, so the lower control arm was pulled anyway (to check the bushings, which were half gone.) I'm not pulling the axle unless I have to -- proper installation of the nut (which is supposed to be single use) requires tightening to 221ft-lbs. (in a rally only car, that's not so important. for a car I drive on roads at 80mph, you bet it is.)

The rears are a snap. It takes longer to take the wheels off. :-)