New front shocks ???

[Colinspence]

So my front shocks are a bit tired and soft due to age so I'm looking to replace with new..
Iv looked on europarts and they got blistein shocks for £68 and £80odd
What's the difference?? And are they any good??
Only £97 with discount code

Or are the oem ones cheaper? Or recommend any others for the same price
Not looking to lower the car as it's hard enough on the road for me as it is ..

What's the difference in the two blistein shocks below apart from the price lol ...

[flashp]

Whatever you do, consider doing all four at once. Some will say not essential but I would argue that to maintain balanced damping it's good practice. If you do this have in mind that springs are cheap if the labour is being paid anyway. 

[Colinspence]

Thanks for the advice. I'll defo do the rears too as they not been touched since new and knocking on 105.000 miles now
I'll  be doing the work my self so to keep costs down

[Octoparrot]

I bought some new fronts from VW last month and they were £98.30 each inc. VAT.
1T0413031EQ and they're made by Sachs. The rears were £87.80 inc VAT 1K0513029GP also by Sachs. I was on 124k and both rear dampers felt shot and it turned out both rear springs had the end of the coils broken which I was unaware of until I took them out. If you're doing the work yourself then you might want to do the lot in one go, I'm glad I did.

[Tazocin]

Ive recently done mine putting in new coilovers and although I managed to do it all myself I would DEFINITELY recommend bribing a mate to help for the day. I was at 120k miles and had fairly rusty fronts, broken springs at the back. Tips from the 2 days it took me are:
- Lots of penetrating spray (and a hammer)
- Spring compressors - hire them, buy them, you need them to work safely
- Research the 2x4 method of front spring compression, saves taking the axle bolts out
- Budget for new topmounts - they arent pricey and they are notorious for coming loose from the screws holding them in place which then need to be cut out or drilled.
- Whilst on topmounts, note the arrows on them, they point to front and back, dont mount them incorrectly!
- Look into the screw that connects shock to top mount - you need a hollow socket (like a sparkplug one), a steeply angled o spanner or a specific tool
- New stretch bolts for front damper cups - not expensive and they are stretch torque
- Drop links can be s***s to undo - the bolt onto the dampener can seize meaning they wont undo - they just spin. Torque can sometimes remove them but you might want to consider a new set of drop links, again, not too expensive - I had to cut mine off the ARB on one side as bolt was completely seized at ARB and couldnt be undone from the dampener.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it and saved a decent amount of money but there were moments when I wished I'd taken it to a garage. Have some beer ready for afterwards. My car felt completely different (although was coilovers) once fitted and replacing tired suspension will improve your handling and drive.

[Colinspence]

I put the gti shocks on the car and I remember how crap a job it was and defo not looking forward to this job again lol

Will the blistein shocks be any good ?? They half the price of vw ones and I know they are a big name in the game ??

One side of the car rubs the inner plastic over bumps and the drivers side made a twanging noise when I pulled off the drive the other day and now make a loose metal rattle noise when I hit bumps 

[Colinspence]

P.s I'm running 19" rs6 alloys if the size of the wheels makes any difference to the rubbing?

[Octoparrot]

Ive recently done mine putting in new coilovers and although I managed to do it all myself I would DEFINITELY recommend bribing a mate to help for the day. I was at 120k miles and had fairly rusty fronts, broken springs at the back. Tips from the 2 days it took me are:
- Lots of penetrating spray (and a hammer)
- Spring compressors - hire them, buy them, you need them to work safely
- Research the 2x4 method of front spring compression, saves taking the axle bolts out
- Budget for new topmounts - they arent pricey and they are notorious for coming loose from the screws holding them in place which then need to be cut out or drilled.
- Whilst on topmounts, note the arrows on them, they point to front and back, dont mount them incorrectly!
- Look into the screw that connects shock to top mount - you need a hollow socket (like a sparkplug one), a steeply angled o spanner or a specific tool
- New stretch bolts for front damper cups - not expensive and they are stretch torque
- Drop links can be s***s to undo - the bolt onto the dampener can seize meaning they wont undo - they just spin. Torque can sometimes remove them but you might want to consider a new set of drop links, again, not too expensive - I had to cut mine off the ARB on one side as bolt was completely seized at ARB and couldnt be undone from the dampener.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it and saved a decent amount of money but there were moments when I wished I'd taken it to a garage. Have some beer ready for afterwards. My car felt completely different (although was coilovers) once fitted and replacing tired suspension will improve your handling and drive.

All good advice, I did mine on my own and there were times an extra pair of hands would have made life a lot easier but I'm very pleased I managed to do it as I'd never done anything so involved before and the improvements it's made to the ride and handling definitely made it worthwhile.

[Christiank]

@Colinspence hope you don't mind I'm hijacking your thread so there won't be 2 topics with same question :)


Anyway.. I'm also on the lookout for a new set of dampers and springs for all 4 wheels. My Mk5 TDI was lowered from factory due to "sport package" which also included a lowered car.

I've got no clue which springs there's on the car now or the dampers for what that matters.. I guess it might be stock MK5 dampers with some sport springs that make the car the high it is now. I'm riding on 18'' 225'40 wheels and have about 10-12mm from wheel to the arch.

I like the lowering and want to keep the same height.

But I also really want to replace this since the I think it feels abit tired and old.

[markrtw]

Anti roll bar drop links should be easy enough as there are allen key (or torx - I forget) slots in the back of it, so you can hold them steady and stop them spinning round when you undo them.

[pudding]

@Colinspence I would get the VW dampers mate.  Whilst they are a tad firm, they are a known entity.  Cheap Bilsteins will be a disappointment.  If you want to improve the ride, consider the VW Racingline Spring/damper kit, which comes in at £550ish for the lot.

Yep, the 19" wheels is why you're getting rubbing, so maybe lowering probably isn't a good idea 

- Budget for new topmounts - they arent pricey and they are notorious for coming loose from the screws holding them in place which then need to be cut out or drilled.
- Whilst on topmounts, note the arrows on them, they point to front and back, dont mount them incorrectly!

Good post mate, but could you please elaborate on the above 2 points?

I fitted new TMs to mine and had no problems removing the 3 bolts holding.  Do you mean the exposed part of the thread corrodes up and they bind?

The arrows did confuse me a bit!  I just made sure the arrows were facing the front/back, not left/right if that makes sense?  I fiddled around with them and from what I could see, the 3 holes would only align if the arrows faced front/back anyway?

I agree, overall a fairly straight forward job.  I did it all on my own, along with Passat hubs, new wheel bearings, Passat wishbones, new BJs, new TMs front and back, new dampers and springs front and back, both rear rubber spring pads.....pretty much everything.  Took 6 hours in total and my back and shoulders were properly dead for a couple of days after.
I didn't need spring compressors as I removed and binned the entire front strut assemblies 

I thought torqueing the hub bolts was going to be the yang to spoil the ying of a good day, but a 4 foot 3/4" breaker bar makes easy work of it......they still feel like they're going to snap though.  I hate stretch bolts!

[Colinspence]

I wondered why the blisteins were so cheap.. because they rubbish then ??

Defo don't want to lower the car .. iv got a gt tdi so am happy with the gti shocks and springs

So looks like stick too oem vw stuff then ?

[pudding]

They're what's classed as 'OEM spec or equivalent' but I doubt they are as well made as the original SACHs items, which last 100K easily.

[Colinspence]

WHat about the sach struts that europarts sell ?
Are they any good ??

[Tazocin]

@Colinspence I would get the VW dampers mate.  Whilst they are a tad firm, they are a known entity.  Cheap Bilsteins will be a disappointment.  If you want to improve the ride, consider the VW Racingline Spring/damper kit, which comes in at £550ish for the lot.

Yep, the 19" wheels is why you're getting rubbing, so maybe lowering probably isn't a good idea 

- Budget for new topmounts - they arent pricey and they are notorious for coming loose from the screws holding them in place which then need to be cut out or drilled.
- Whilst on topmounts, note the arrows on them, they point to front and back, dont mount them incorrectly!

Good post mate, but could you please elaborate on the above 2 points?

I fitted new TMs to mine and had no problems removing the 3 bolts holding.  Do you mean the exposed part of the thread corrodes up and they bind?

The arrows did confuse me a bit!  I just made sure the arrows were facing the front/back, not left/right if that makes sense?  I fiddled around with them and from what I could see, the 3 holes would only align if the arrows faced front/back anyway?

I agree, overall a fairly straight forward job.  I did it all on my own, along with Passat hubs, new wheel bearings, Passat wishbones, new BJs, new TMs front and back, new dampers and springs front and back, both rear rubber spring pads.....pretty much everything.  Took 6 hours in total and my back and shoulders were properly dead for a couple of days after.
I didn't need spring compressors as I removed and binned the entire front strut assemblies 

I thought torqueing the hub bolts was going to be the yang to spoil the ying of a good day, but a 4 foot 3/4" breaker bar makes easy work of it......they still feel like they're going to snap though.  I hate stretch bolts!

From what I' found with mine (and subsequently researching online)) the nut on the underside of the top mount rust and detach from the top mount body/or break loose as the plastic of the top mount ages and gets brittle. You can spin the bolt on top by the windscreen but you cant get to the nut as its blocked by the body of the topmount bearing. My topmount bearing had come loose cos of a snapped spring and I still couldnt get to it as its so narrow up there so in the end I took a hacksaw to the top bolt and fitted new.

Arrows do face front back, I'd heard ppl can fit them sideways and it affects the function of the top mount but wasnt too bad when prewarned.

I've followed your advice on the passat stuff, doing wishbones with a superpro bj/alk/bush setup and will switch hubs and bearings in the future.

Out of curiousity is there a list of good oem alternatives? Ive used Febi Bilstein stuff with good results, same for a cpl of other makes. Found some Febi Bilstein bearings the other day for 70 each I nearly went for as well but wasnt  sure on quality. Anyone got a link to whats trusted and what isnt?