Hi. I took my 2020 Cupra 290 for a service yesterday and the guy rings me to say I have a leaking front shock absorber and the two rears must need replacing ‘cos both rear tyres are ‘out of round’. I find this astonishing on a 35k mile car. Haven’t seen the front but I guess a visual check would confirm, but the thing about the rears being so bad that (and I quote) “the tyres are doing the job of the dampers, so are out of shape” sounds bizarre. That said, the rear tyres are noisy. But at 19” they always have been. I wondered if anyone else had a similar story?
Bad dampers at 35k miles?
- Thread starter Minipete515
- Start date
Hi. Never used him before. This is its third service, been to a main before then found this ‘independent’ for this one. Thought it would be nice to save over £100 on an oil service! This is a lease car and one of my main motivators for leasing is not having to ‘trust’ mechanics. I don’t expect problems with 3 year old cars.
My daughter's May 2019 Leon Cupra at its MOT this year, at 19.5K miles, got an advisory concerning the front offside damping "misting", when I swopped that car over to its summer wheels/tyres earlier this month (better late than never!), I noticed that this misting had probably progressed, or at least more oil had misted out, so, despite what "experts" say about "all VW Group cars suffer from this, not necessarily worth commenting on", from my experience and mechanical knowledge, as this misting is still happening and coating the upper area of that damper, I'd say that along with this oil there will also be a loss of some of the gas from this damper, so maybe the time is coming for that car to get both its adaptable dampers replaced!
I've noticed with some front wheel drive cars that we've owned, where they tend to be used mainly with only front occupants, that firstly the rear brake discs suffer from not being handed much work, and also, the rear dampers can suffer as well possibly due to lack of compression - that comment was first made to me when I discovered a rear damper was not working too well (exact detected functional failure/limitation now not remembered 30+ years on), and when I went into the Ford dealership to buy a new damper for her Fiesta, the parts guy said that this early life failure was being considered to have been aggravated by "lack of work/use" and it was happening, at that time, to many similar cars - although I'd reckon many many owners have not noticed this and unless it has become serious, it will not be detected by an MOT tester.
I have also found a reason to replace the rear dampers on my wife's previous 2002 VW Polo, for some reason that I've now forgotten, maybe I had checked the dampers while replacing the bump stops - known now as bumpers! Unfortunately I will soon need to do that bump stop replacing on my wife's current 2015 VW Polo, so maybe I'll find that its rear dampers are due replacement when I have them off to replace the bump stops!!
I've noticed with some front wheel drive cars that we've owned, where they tend to be used mainly with only front occupants, that firstly the rear brake discs suffer from not being handed much work, and also, the rear dampers can suffer as well possibly due to lack of compression - that comment was first made to me when I discovered a rear damper was not working too well (exact detected functional failure/limitation now not remembered 30+ years on), and when I went into the Ford dealership to buy a new damper for her Fiesta, the parts guy said that this early life failure was being considered to have been aggravated by "lack of work/use" and it was happening, at that time, to many similar cars - although I'd reckon many many owners have not noticed this and unless it has become serious, it will not be detected by an MOT tester.
I have also found a reason to replace the rear dampers on my wife's previous 2002 VW Polo, for some reason that I've now forgotten, maybe I had checked the dampers while replacing the bump stops - known now as bumpers! Unfortunately I will soon need to do that bump stop replacing on my wife's current 2015 VW Polo, so maybe I'll find that its rear dampers are due replacement when I have them off to replace the bump stops!!
Thanks for that detailed explanation - the car does mainly motorway miles with usually only me in it so it ticks the boxes for both the possible rear damper issue and the rear discs are also indeed in poor condition. I’m irritated by this as it’s a potential problem I really don’t think I should be facing on a car of this age and mileage. Even if the rear tyre problems aren’t related to the dampers they still shouldn’t have a problem (not round anymore for ****** sake!), the rear discs in a state and the fact a front damper is leaking at 35k is shocking (no pun intended!) I love the car, it’s ace to drive and I was anticipating much regret on handing it back next March, wondering if there might be a purchase option. Now I can’t wait to see the back of it! Shame as there’s nothing to touch it for value (or at least when I took the lease out)
It's very hard to find garages you can trust. You think you're safe with a dealer but my local Seat dealer tried to rip me off on brakes years ago and stung me for a bunch of stuff on my wife's car last year.
All you can do is check the car as best you can before it goes in. They like getting you on things like dampers and brakes because most people can't or don't check them. I do so when the dealer told me I needed new brake pads I told them to beat it as I knew I didn't. The brakes were about half worn at most. If you don't check things yourself you're totally at their mercy and they will rob you.
All you can do is check the car as best you can before it goes in. They like getting you on things like dampers and brakes because most people can't or don't check them. I do so when the dealer told me I needed new brake pads I told them to beat it as I knew I didn't. The brakes were about half worn at most. If you don't check things yourself you're totally at their mercy and they will rob you.
I think that the rear disc issue is either the supplier to SEAT factories, or the influence of the car's driver aids, I can see that I'll be replacing the discs on my daughter's May 2019 Leon Cupra when the second set of brake pads have worn down to their "need replacing" thickness, obviously that second set of genuine VW Group pads are having a worse time than the first set as the rear discs surfaces are now "not good". I'll be fitting non VW Group rear discs, partly due to my previous experience of early-ish life need to replace factory VW and SEAT brake discs, Audi don't seem to suffer this "not so good" factory fitted brake discs for some reason, or I've just been lucky with a single example of Audi cars.
I agree. This was an independent and I must admit there is something niggling me about him. Funnily enough he said the front pads were very low also and I had him do them…it was only later I thought why didn’t I check them first then bring it back if necessary. They are easy enough to see on the Cupra. Interesting also, when I went to collect it he’s on the phone to someone else with a big list of problems. Thing is, is it worth trying to stitch people up these days with on-line reviews etc? I’m consoling myself that the pads probably would have needed doing fairly soon anyway even if not now and I accept that they wear out. However, there’s no denying the rear tyres are noisy. I had noticed that long before he mentioned it. This isn’t really about the garage as I haven’t had him do any more work other than the pads, I’m just trying to establish if this damper thing is a common problem on this model. Just want the car right but I’m not ploughing money into a lease car unless really necessary!
They still try it. Not just garages but all sorts of people. I know so many people who've been ripped of by gardeners, builders, roofers, you name it. These people just don't think like normal people do.
My rear dampers where shot at just after 100k miles - but my tyres are fine; 'still round'!
VW have an 'allowance' for a little misting! My rears showed some misting for 3+ years, so while not great - I wouldn't say it's an urgent replacement for a 'little misting'?
I've ended up with a Goodyear NCT(?) with a flat section at maybe 15>20K miles on a Ford Orion Ghia 1.6 Injection, I noticed that while checking the tyres with the wheels off the ground, it was a rear wheel, so I bought a new tyre from a local tyre chain place who dealt a lot with Goodyear, they said that they would hand this tyre over to the local Goodyear rep and get a refund against the remaining wear on that tyre. Well that went t'ts up as someone lost the tyre but I ended up with a voucher for £80 which was almost 100% no good to me as at that time I was changing cars every 2 years or so - so some lucky beggar at work took that voucher off my hands for £50 and put it towards a new back box on his slightly used Audi 80!
The misting is common on the cupra, had it on the cupra st. Owned it for 4 yrs and it was mentioned at first mot at 3yrs old. The car still drove as it should. In the end I just did a quick visual inspection every couple months and got the garage to do the same when it had servicing or mot done. Others in the forum have got there's replaced when they felt it was affecting the ride.
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