2016 1.4tsi 150 front spring broken
- Thread starter Vauxfan
- Start date
In June I had a broken rear spring on my 2018 Leon FR. It was replaced under warranty. Following the 3-year new car warranty it has been covered by two purchases of the VAG All-in-1 2-year scheme.
I'm guessing that you checked what Sachs (ZF Aftermarket) web cat listed as the correct parts for your car, and not just ordered online from ECP.
If not, you might find that the ride height is a lot higher than it is now - maybe check the ride height now on both sides before changing the springs, record the "colour coding" of the original springs, just in case you need this later down the line.
You can but it's a tricky DIY.
I did mine - and i've done loads of cambelts/headgaskets etc.. but I found it tricky. Getting it apart was fairly straight forward - but getting it back together was the tricky part - jacking up the strut and guiding it down into the knuckle whilst keeping all your fingers!!
Lots of video's on the "2x4" method for changing front struts on Golf Mk7.
Doing mine on my sloping drive didn't do me any favours!!
The videos all show bolting some wood/metal to the drop link bracket on the strut to jack up from - but only having this one bolt was not enough for my situation to keep it all aligned - I also had to use some heavy metal clamps to restrain my wood and keep it inline with the strut to stop it twanging sideways!
If I did it again I think I would just remove the lower ball joint and drive shaft as per the workshop manual.
Hum, I did that to my daughter's 2009 Ibiza while I was looking after it for a few years while she worked aboard, naughty car broke a front spring as we drove to the airport for a week's holiday abroad!
To be fair, the 2009 1.4 16V 86PS Ibiza SC was always a bit "up in the air" when compared with my wife's Polo, but ECP's chosen Sachs part number was not correct for that car.
I bought Lesjofors front and rear springs for my wife's 2015 Polo, via Autodoc - I picked the part numbers, getting the right fronts was easy, couldn't find the correct rear ones so just grabbed the closest one, the fronts were spot on, the rears dropped the rear by maybe 10mm, which actually improved the stance of the car and mainly it is only 2 of us that are in it.
So, I checked out ECP for the correct Sachs offering, as soon as I saw them on the counter I noticed that they didn't have the usual format of numbering that official genuine Sachs parts have - they had the Lesjofors format along with the DOM code - just exactly the same items as I had bought from Autodoc - so I just returned them. When I contacted ECP's help line and asked about this and included the correct Sachs part number, I was told to pass this to my local ECP branch and they can very easily source them for me - did they? Not at all "we don't do that sort of thing" - oh well I tried, I probably would not have liked the price that genuine "not normally stocked" Sachs springs would have cost me from ECP!
Well, someone on here was correct! 1st spring fitted was spot on. 2nd done today and the car sits higher and the spring seems like is less harsh. Same code on both boxes. But no spring identifying code. Just yellow numbers that I think aren't spring codes. How annoying. Sachs boxed springs but I have found out ECP own zf who bought Sachs and sachs apparently don't do springs now??
"ECP own zf who bought Sachs" hum, I'm not too sure about that ZF is a huge German owned parts and technology conglomerate who's turn over will be well higher than ECP's.
There is some trickery going on as some Sachs stuff, well at least springs, that are sold by ECP are actually Lesjofors products, which has really confused me as in my world the "status" or perceived "quality" of Lesjofors springs is higher than that of Sachs - so why are they doing that. Normally crap gets put into quality packaging - but this is not happening here.
I'm guessing that the almost invisible numbering of each of these springs is different - so someone somewhere has ended up swopping springs between "Sachs" boxes - bloody time wasters!
Edit:- typically aftermarket spring suppliers do not use these manufacturer's colour coding, just unique numbering product code.
Another Edit:- I can't quite work out why helpful car mags such as Car Mechanic don't have the bottle to look into this - they must know that this is happening.
There is some trickery going on as some Sachs stuff, well at least springs, that are sold by ECP are actually Lesjofors products, which has really confused me as in my world the "status" or perceived "quality" of Lesjofors springs is higher than that of Sachs - so why are they doing that. Normally crap gets put into quality packaging - but this is not happening here.
I'm guessing that the almost invisible numbering of each of these springs is different - so someone somewhere has ended up swopping springs between "Sachs" boxes - bloody time wasters!
Edit:- typically aftermarket spring suppliers do not use these manufacturer's colour coding, just unique numbering product code.
Another Edit:- I can't quite work out why helpful car mags such as Car Mechanic don't have the bottle to look into this - they must know that this is happening.
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This is what i read from a post from 2021 when some had the same issue with no sachs markings but yellow ecp numbers that dont relate to anything.
""Sachs springs are a brand now owned by ECP in the UK, they can put whatever they like in the box.
Sachs are part of ZF and don’t make springs anymore but have licensed the name to ECP.
If the price was right, I think the Lesjofors will be fine""
But I can't verify it. Just read loads of posts with sachs boxes with no markings on the springs other than yellow numbers that don't relate to anything!!
The springs i have on now are
71523 T1050491
71418 T1047610
but these are not identification codes apparently. 1 is upside down the other isnt even though the springs are the right way up!!@
""Sachs springs are a brand now owned by ECP in the UK, they can put whatever they like in the box.
Sachs are part of ZF and don’t make springs anymore but have licensed the name to ECP.
If the price was right, I think the Lesjofors will be fine""
But I can't verify it. Just read loads of posts with sachs boxes with no markings on the springs other than yellow numbers that don't relate to anything!!
The springs i have on now are
71523 T1050491
71418 T1047610
but these are not identification codes apparently. 1 is upside down the other isnt even though the springs are the right way up!!@
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Have you tried checking on the Lesjofors applications listing online, I'd hope that you would find the 5 digit code on there. In my case, back last year, the Sachs boxes that I ordering online from ECP had the same 5 digit (Lesjofors) product code number on them, as well as the "manufacturing batch number" or something similar.
https://www.lesjofors-automotive.com/
aftermarket.zf.com
https://www.lesjofors-automotive.com/
ZF Aftermarket Online Catalog
aftermarket.zf.com
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