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Front shocks for FR
- Thread starter MA1601
- Start date
Have a look on AUTODOC
they sell sachs
They also list each car by type under the part.
Std suspension, sport suspension, electronic adjusted suspension etc
Really be very very careful when using even Autodoc, I bought front and rear road springs for my wife's 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 5Door, it was Lesjofors springs that I was wanting, fitted the rear springs without comparing with the VW originals, the car sits maybe 10>15mm lower at the rear now. THEN and only then, I dug deeper, Lesjofors do not provide rear springs for that car, just for 3Door and GT! So, I checked up on Sachs website, got my facts, and ordered a pair in from ECP, they came in a Sachs box, but curiously the only part numbers on the label were Lesjofors numbers! I contacted ECP HQ and they said to just request the Sachs part number that you know is correct, local ECP not interested in that at all, so springs were handed back in. Now, this is the second time that I've ended up with the wrong Sachs items for this car, I ordered a pair of new Sachs rear dampers from ECP but they were not what Sachs says suits that model of Polo, so again ECP HQ were contacted and that time they gave me their stock number for the ones that Sachs said suit that car, so I swopped them over.
Events have claimed too much time, so I have not yet swopped the front dampers and springs, but I'm hoping that they are okay! My plan here is to "refresh" the front and rear suspension etc at 9 years/50,000miles in time so that I don't end up having a spring break on me at an inconvenient point in time! The rear springs that I took off that car were both rusting badly at the same point - which is where the springs are suspended from when getting spray painted, when I got the new Lesjofors springs from Autodoc, I noticed that all 4 springs had a bare area - again I'd think from where they were hung while being painted, so I've sorted that out on all of them.
I can't speak from experience of Leons, but certainly on any Polo and Ibiza I've worked on, you need to retain the plastic "basket" dust guard retainer from the original VW Group front strut and the VW Group dust cover from the original rear dampers and also the spring clip from the top of the piston, for use on the aftermarket struts and dampers.
So, if you are replacing the front struts, I'd hope that you replace the springs as well before they end up snapping, and the top mounting and bearing - along with all the bolts and nuts that have been removed.
Edit:- I've had front spring failure on a 2002 Polo in maybe 2006 or 2007, rear spring failure in 2009, in a 2009 Ibiza I had a rear spring cause an MOT failure in 2015 and a front spring failure in 2017, so that is why I've chosen to try and avoid it with this car.
Events have claimed too much time, so I have not yet swopped the front dampers and springs, but I'm hoping that they are okay! My plan here is to "refresh" the front and rear suspension etc at 9 years/50,000miles in time so that I don't end up having a spring break on me at an inconvenient point in time! The rear springs that I took off that car were both rusting badly at the same point - which is where the springs are suspended from when getting spray painted, when I got the new Lesjofors springs from Autodoc, I noticed that all 4 springs had a bare area - again I'd think from where they were hung while being painted, so I've sorted that out on all of them.
I can't speak from experience of Leons, but certainly on any Polo and Ibiza I've worked on, you need to retain the plastic "basket" dust guard retainer from the original VW Group front strut and the VW Group dust cover from the original rear dampers and also the spring clip from the top of the piston, for use on the aftermarket struts and dampers.
So, if you are replacing the front struts, I'd hope that you replace the springs as well before they end up snapping, and the top mounting and bearing - along with all the bolts and nuts that have been removed.
Edit:- I've had front spring failure on a 2002 Polo in maybe 2006 or 2007, rear spring failure in 2009, in a 2009 Ibiza I had a rear spring cause an MOT failure in 2015 and a front spring failure in 2017, so that is why I've chosen to try and avoid it with this car.
One other thing that I do when one of my family buy another VW Group car is, go into the parts department of that marque's main dealership, and ask them to provide me with a printout of CAR DATA, doing that allows me to see any/all production line build options that car has - in this situation "options" mainly means "standard build" options, but will also include any "factory orders" requested extras or options.
The other thing I do is to make sure that I've made up a list of usual "consumables" and that to me means typical service parts and other things like suspension parts part numbers. There are a few safe enough online sources of ETKA even although they have just been copied from an official source but normally updated as and when required.
The other thing I do is to make sure that I've made up a list of usual "consumables" and that to me means typical service parts and other things like suspension parts part numbers. There are a few safe enough online sources of ETKA even although they have just been copied from an official source but normally updated as and when required.
Yes I had a similar issue on my Mk6 GTI - I bought Sachs springs from ECP only to find they were Lesjofors in the box. Since then I don’t really buy parts from ECP anymore. Autodoc supplied me with the correct ones and some Lemforder arms too.
I have no issues with ending up with Lesjofors springs, in fact I deliberately bought that brand when ordering from Autodoc, Lesjofors do seem to be a proper wire producing company, so it is their products that they use to make their coil springs. What can bother me wrt ECP is their "cunning" use and/or agreement to use, an otherwise trusted parts supplier Sachs's packaging to re-package parts that are not from Sachs's parts range, something naughty going on there, though in this case, for supplying road springs, I'd place Lesjofors above Sachs. For my wife's 2015 Polo, going by the Sachs online catalogue, they do supply the correct part so have a stock number for it - ECP, maybe like some other parts suppliers, rather cutting down or shortening the range of items they stock to cover cars, so in this case, that seems to mean stocking a single re-packaged Lesjofors spring and making it cover maybe 3 or 4 Sachs offerings - while being allowed, or just re-packaging them in a Sachs box.
I'll admit making one error when ordering in that rear road spring from Autodoc - I did not check what VW Group part numbers that it matched, when I inputted the correct VW Group part number on Autodoc, you get offer maybe 20 options, most will be near enough the correct item, but in this case only 2 were claiming to be an exact match, Suplex were one and Sachs were the other - I had my heart set on buying Lesjofors so allowed myself to ignore that this was not claimed to be an exact match! By the way, the correct Sachs item was HUGE money from Autodoc for some reason, though if I feel the need to get hold of the slightly longer correct Sachs spring, they are available at least via online car parts suppliers for "ECP type" money.
I have still to fit the front springs etc, but for that front spring, Lesjofors item seems to be an exact match, currently the Polo sits "flat" so has equal ride heights front and rear, as opposed to it sitting slightly raised (+10.0>12.5mm) at the rear, maybe I'll end up living with this as normally it is just 2 of us in that car. Trying to do things correctly while avoiding buying everything from main dealers can be tricky!
I'll admit making one error when ordering in that rear road spring from Autodoc - I did not check what VW Group part numbers that it matched, when I inputted the correct VW Group part number on Autodoc, you get offer maybe 20 options, most will be near enough the correct item, but in this case only 2 were claiming to be an exact match, Suplex were one and Sachs were the other - I had my heart set on buying Lesjofors so allowed myself to ignore that this was not claimed to be an exact match! By the way, the correct Sachs item was HUGE money from Autodoc for some reason, though if I feel the need to get hold of the slightly longer correct Sachs spring, they are available at least via online car parts suppliers for "ECP type" money.
I have still to fit the front springs etc, but for that front spring, Lesjofors item seems to be an exact match, currently the Polo sits "flat" so has equal ride heights front and rear, as opposed to it sitting slightly raised (+10.0>12.5mm) at the rear, maybe I'll end up living with this as normally it is just 2 of us in that car. Trying to do things correctly while avoiding buying everything from main dealers can be tricky!
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Agree. I needed a fuel filter for my daughter's Toledo and there loads listed on Autodoc with multiple VW equivalents listed as suitable. I wasn't confident about it so ordered it from the Seat dealer. When collecting if I asked the service guy about it and he said that different filters give different levels of resistance so although they look identical on the outside the wrong one can cause engine running issues. Then the owner spends a fortune trying to figure out what's going on as they never suspect the fuel filter because it's new.
I also get genuine VW/Seat springs, yeah I've replaced a few! It's worth the extra to fit and forget knowing you've got the correct part. Also, if you ask, the dealer might give you a discount so it's not as expensive as you might think.
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