Fitting Eibach Sportlines

Cupraken

Southwest Stealth
Apr 10, 2009
318
0
Street, Somerset
Spent a couple of hours in the drizzle yesterday fitting new springs, hope this helps.....
Before:
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IMG_0115.jpg

After:
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The car's dropped 15mm front and 40mm rear but I would expect it to settle another 5-10mm as the springs settle into the rubbers. Maybe a couple of 10mm wheel spacers on rear?
Tools needed:14mm spline socket, 27mm socket, T30 socket, 21mm or 13/16" plug socket, long 7mm allen key, spring compressors (optional), usual sockets ets.
First jackup car and remove front wheel, you need to undo 27mm front hub nut, this will be tight so if you don't have an air gun handy (I did) take the centre cap out of the wheel, put wheel back on, lower to ground and undo, or get someone to put the brake on. With car back in air, undo 18mm anti roll bar top link nut, one side came off no prob, the other I had to hold the centre with a T30 and undo with a 18mm wrench. It's best to do both sides at the same time as the driver's side roll bar gets in the way later.
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Then scribe a line on the strut where it goes into the hub for future reference and undo the pinch bolt at the base of strut with 14mm spline socket and 18mm socket, on passenger side undo the 10mm nut in bottom arm that holds the Hid leveller and move out the way. Worth checking the cable to this as mine was under tension so I eased the cable a bit where it's tied to the abs lead. Screw in the hub bolt 4/5 turns and bang in gently with a copper mallet so it's free to move and remove bolt. Now the fun starts! Using a medium flat-blade screwdriver bang it upwards carefully into the slit in the back of the alloy where the bottom of the strut goes in and liberally squirt some WD40 or similar. You need only to expand this enough so when the strut comes out the safety tab which has a couple of dimples can come free. Using the copper mallet, carefully bang down on the hub while levering the bottom arm down until the strut can come out of the hub, this is easier on the passenger side so maybe do this one first to get a feel for it. All the while make sure the driveshaft is free so it's not pulling out of the CV joint, maybe put the bolt in a couple of turns so you can tap it in.
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Now the strut is free you can lift off the rubber trim at the base of the windscreen above the top mount and remove the 13mm top bolts, bit fiddly, I used a 1" wobbly extension and a shallow 6-sided socket on a stubby ratchet once I had cracked off the bolts (I'm a Snap-On tool dealer so a selection of tools isn't a problem, sorry!)
Lift out strut and onto bench.
Top mount on one strut buzzed off, but the other was stiff so had to use 21mm socket with hex on (13/16" plug socket) with long 7mm allen key.
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Now, on the first one I compressed the spring as you would, but noticed when I fitted the new Eibach that it wasn't necessary, they're not under much tension, just be careful if you can't do this! Fit the new bump-stop, engage the bottom coil in the rubber locator and refit the top mount. Back on the car, I found it easiest to loosely bolt the top mount bolts and then reverse the levering/fiddling process to get the strut back in. This time you need to bang upwards to the point where the security tab just clears the through hole in the hub and your scribed mark (remember that?) lines up. Reassemble in reverse order! After fitting front springs I panicked a bit cos it didn't seem any lower, but all well once rears were done, maybe old front springs were a bit knackered?

On to the rear, piece of cake this, jack up, remove wheel, pull/lever down on spring and remove! You can lever new spring back in but I didn't want to scratch my new red paint so compress spring slightly and zip-tie it, put back in with rubber mount on top and release, easy-peasy!
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Thats it, took about 2 hours all in, admittedly with all the right tools, bit fiddly at times but overall easy job and well worth £150 for the improvement in the stance, not too low but levelled out. Haven't had the driving time to comment on the handling, but got to be a bit better?!
 
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Thanks, looks like its really easy to do. I'll have to get my springs on order. You mentioned that the front springs aren't under tension when put together ?? did you tie wrap these to the strut to stup them turning thus locking them in the cup ??? Otherwise looks great :)
 

Cupraken

Southwest Stealth
Apr 10, 2009
318
0
Street, Somerset
I could fit the new springs no prob without using compressors, the tension only came on when tightening the top mount. Pretty sure the old springs were the same length so should come off w/o compressors but go steady, unwind the top mount nut to nearly the end and see what tension they're under. Should be ok..............
 
I have thought about cheating and jacking the suspension up and then putting the compressors on, it might give a bit more movenment, also with putting the stryt back in the knuckle i've always found it easier to use a jjack to lift the knuckle upwards.

Have you had chance to drive it yet ? what are your thoughts ?
 

Cupraken

Southwest Stealth
Apr 10, 2009
318
0
Street, Somerset
Been wet since yesterday so can't really comment! You need to get the strut back in the hub dead straight before jacking or anything, by which time with a bit of lube it goes in pretty easy anyway, I did put an axle stand under the bottom arm and lower the car, same as putting a jack under I guess! Main thing is to get the strut started dead straight
 

JMP

Full Member
May 27, 2004
165
4
When you have fitted the new springs, have you just reused all the old nuts and bolts or replaced with new ones? At what did you torque the 27mm hub bolt? Thanks
 

Cupraken

Southwest Stealth
Apr 10, 2009
318
0
Street, Somerset
Re-used all bolts, unless they're obviously rusty/tight coming off which shouldn't be the case with these cars. Can't remember torque, I'll look it up and post
 
May 25, 2008
1,919
1
S.Wales
www.seatcupra.net
i took mine to a garage ended up paying 70.00 which wasn't bad but i had a dent by the door and a few scratches!?....ended up having to fix it myself as it was too late when i noticed it. oh well lesson learnt won't be go there again
 

Cupraken

Southwest Stealth
Apr 10, 2009
318
0
Street, Somerset
I'm thinking 240nm, loosen off 1/2 turn, then retighten to 240nm + 90 degrees, defo tight! I'll double check Autodata and Vag customer tomorrow and let you know. PS, you're only supposed to re-use the bolt once, so if you don't know the history of your car, get new ones!!!!
 

Cupraken

Southwest Stealth
Apr 10, 2009
318
0
Street, Somerset
Both come up with 200 nm + 180 degrees, probably find that's the same as 240 + 90 anyway! Asked in Audi how tight? Frickin' tight plus a bit, very technical lol
 

JMP

Full Member
May 27, 2004
165
4
Both come up with 200 nm + 180 degrees, probably find that's the same as 240 + 90 anyway! Asked in Audi how tight? Frickin' tight plus a bit, very technical lol

Thanks for the responses, today I shopped around and got some heavy duty tools for that correct frickin tight torque :) My plan is to install the springs during weekend.
 

JMP

Full Member
May 27, 2004
165
4
get the strut spreader its bloody hard work without it.

Yeah, me and my friend changed his Audi TT springs and shocks a couple of weeks ago without one and it was a real pain. Since I couldnt buy one, I manufactured a spreader tool from a 10mm hex bolt, it spreads from about 6mm to 9.5mm. Lets hope it does the trick!
 

JMP

Full Member
May 27, 2004
165
4
Just managed to change all the springs, it took about 4 hours total, 3h front and 1h back. And that was taking a good time thinking about what we were doing. Everything went smoothly, the speader made getting the shocks out so easy! And I changed the fronts without taking out the axle bolts so no worries about tightening to the correct torque! :p

There is currently snow on the ground so I wasnt able to get a good feeling of the drive now, but its now nice low and looks dead even front/back. Also it does seems like the handling has improved a bit. Im very impressed so far, its no wonder why everyone speaks so highly of these :)
 

Cupraken

Southwest Stealth
Apr 10, 2009
318
0
Street, Somerset
It should settle down a little after a few drives! Hope you found a little help from my pics, not too hard is it? I loosened the driveshafts just to be sure there was no pulling on the inner cv joints......
 

JMP

Full Member
May 27, 2004
165
4
It should settle down a little after a few drives! Hope you found a little help from my pics, not too hard is it? I loosened the driveshafts just to be sure there was no pulling on the inner cv joints......

Yes your pics helped a lot, I even printed them out lol. And this Leon Cupra was a lot easier then MK1 Audi TT that we did earlier. But we didnt have the spreader tool at the time which was the biggest issue.

BTW every suspension DIY I have read for Seat and VW Golf mkV, sudgests that the antirollbar has a torx hole, but atleast in my Leon its not! I almost rounded the hole with my torx, then I realised its a XZN/spline/triple square type of bolt.
 
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