Cognomen
New member
- Location
- Warner Robins, GA
- Car(s)
- '18 GTI SE DSG
As with so many others, after taking delivery of my GTI, I was hitting what I thought were the bump stops on spots where the road had gradual dips, and real bumps felt like there was no suspension. In fact, I complained about it in the survey VW sent me after buying the car. There were several memorable times when this happened and it scared the crap out of me due to how violent and loud it was. I thought this was just a sporty suspension and planned to aim some mods at mitigating the harshness. (I have spine problems and harsh bumps are not fun.) Over time, I started dodging potholes and slowing down over areas I had learned would be nasty to drive over. Another aspect of the suspension that I thought was strange was that the car would feel floaty and underdamped after a bump - making it somewhat harder to control for a brief time. I am curious to see if that behavior will be gone now.
I recently decided to switch to 17" wheels, partially due to the added rubber between my spine and the road. I received the new wheels today, and jacked up the car to check their fitment, on the passenger side. Right away, I noticed that the dust boot on my strut was all messed up.
It was not like this the last time I rotated my tires at about 6k miles. I am at 13k miles now. I was aware of the shipping puck problem, but I didn't know it was possible to check for them without taking apart the suspension. When I saw the state of my dust boot, I got my phone and started taking pictures. I started pulling the boot down, and it gave birth to three baby blue puck triplets. They were not attached to the strut. The dust boot has a couple of holes, and is damaged enough that it won't cover up the strut piston any more.
As far as I can tell, I must have hit a bump hard enough to cause the pucks to come off of the strut, but they remained trapped inside the dust boot. It appears one of them got caught in the spring, as well. I think it must have been wedged in the spring, in fact, because when I put the car back down, I lost about a half inch of space above the tire. I had planned on putting VWR springs on, but now I'm not sure I want to lower it that much. (Already bought the springs, too.)
I checked the driver side and it also had 3 pucks. The boot was not as badly damaged, but still deformed somewhat and doesn't stay in place to cover the strut. Two of the pucks were detached from the strut but they were in better shape, so I guess they stayed clear of the spring. I think maybe the single attached puck in the driver's side, and the spring-stuck puck on the passenger side amounted to a similar wheel arch gap on both sides - so I didn't notice a difference between the two sides.
I have read a bunch of threads about this issue and I've seen everything from 'it wouldn't cause damage' to 'you need a new suspension'. In my case, it seems like I have been driving on these damn things for longer than most people do, and if I knocked into those pucks hard enough to make them jump off the strut, I don't have high hopes for my strut mounts/bearings, or the strut housings themselves. I know I need new dust boots at the minimum.
I am planning to get the dealership involved, so I will hold off putting the new wheels on the car so they don't have to worry about my spline drive lug bolts and I don't have to worry about them scratching the wheels.
I am Cobb/EQT tuned, so I have been avoiding the dealership and changing my own oil. I have an oil catch can, a high flow air filter, and an MST TIP. I also run a flush spacer kit, and that's about it for mods.
Should I put the Cobb stock-like tune on before bringing it in? I am thinking it will TD1 me either way, if they hook their computer up.
At minimum, I plan on asking them to closely inspect the struts, strut mounts and bearings, and to replace the dust boots and bump stops. I don't really expect them to do a good job at the inspection, as it is not in their interest to find damage.
I'd feel better if they inspected the whole front suspension, and replaced the struts.
Ideally, they would pay for me to get some KW street comfort coilovers and install them for me. That would make us square, in my opinion... I (and my spine) should have been enjoying my GTI much more than I have been for 3 freakin years.
If they won't play ball, or brush it off as they seem to do sometimes, I will get VWoA involved.
Advice is welcome.
I recently decided to switch to 17" wheels, partially due to the added rubber between my spine and the road. I received the new wheels today, and jacked up the car to check their fitment, on the passenger side. Right away, I noticed that the dust boot on my strut was all messed up.
It was not like this the last time I rotated my tires at about 6k miles. I am at 13k miles now. I was aware of the shipping puck problem, but I didn't know it was possible to check for them without taking apart the suspension. When I saw the state of my dust boot, I got my phone and started taking pictures. I started pulling the boot down, and it gave birth to three baby blue puck triplets. They were not attached to the strut. The dust boot has a couple of holes, and is damaged enough that it won't cover up the strut piston any more.
As far as I can tell, I must have hit a bump hard enough to cause the pucks to come off of the strut, but they remained trapped inside the dust boot. It appears one of them got caught in the spring, as well. I think it must have been wedged in the spring, in fact, because when I put the car back down, I lost about a half inch of space above the tire. I had planned on putting VWR springs on, but now I'm not sure I want to lower it that much. (Already bought the springs, too.)
I checked the driver side and it also had 3 pucks. The boot was not as badly damaged, but still deformed somewhat and doesn't stay in place to cover the strut. Two of the pucks were detached from the strut but they were in better shape, so I guess they stayed clear of the spring. I think maybe the single attached puck in the driver's side, and the spring-stuck puck on the passenger side amounted to a similar wheel arch gap on both sides - so I didn't notice a difference between the two sides.
I have read a bunch of threads about this issue and I've seen everything from 'it wouldn't cause damage' to 'you need a new suspension'. In my case, it seems like I have been driving on these damn things for longer than most people do, and if I knocked into those pucks hard enough to make them jump off the strut, I don't have high hopes for my strut mounts/bearings, or the strut housings themselves. I know I need new dust boots at the minimum.
I am planning to get the dealership involved, so I will hold off putting the new wheels on the car so they don't have to worry about my spline drive lug bolts and I don't have to worry about them scratching the wheels.
I am Cobb/EQT tuned, so I have been avoiding the dealership and changing my own oil. I have an oil catch can, a high flow air filter, and an MST TIP. I also run a flush spacer kit, and that's about it for mods.
Should I put the Cobb stock-like tune on before bringing it in? I am thinking it will TD1 me either way, if they hook their computer up.
At minimum, I plan on asking them to closely inspect the struts, strut mounts and bearings, and to replace the dust boots and bump stops. I don't really expect them to do a good job at the inspection, as it is not in their interest to find damage.
I'd feel better if they inspected the whole front suspension, and replaced the struts.
Ideally, they would pay for me to get some KW street comfort coilovers and install them for me. That would make us square, in my opinion... I (and my spine) should have been enjoying my GTI much more than I have been for 3 freakin years.
If they won't play ball, or brush it off as they seem to do sometimes, I will get VWoA involved.
Advice is welcome.
Attachments
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SHIPPING PUCKS 03.jpg -
SHIPPING PUCKS 04.jpg -
SHIPPING PUCKS 05.jpg
