Afternoon turned out nice so decided to have a go at the shock absorbers after I finished work.
They beat me.
First time trying out the Milwaukee impact wrench and that did the job fine - had a little trouble at first getting the wheel bolts out, but it's a mix of a lack of copper slip on the threads and me worrying about waking the dead by leaving it on the third setting until they came out.
Everything was going fine with the shocks - the impact wrench even got the lower shock bolt out that's been rusted in place for years (it stripped half the thread...!) - until I tried to get the lower shock out of the knuckle. I bought some spreaders and was expecting it to be easy, but I couldn't really find anywhere to put the spreader in, and where I did put it, which was about an inch or so under the bolt hole, it seemed too low to actually do anything. I couldn't get it in any higher because the fin on the shock got in the way and when I hit the knuckle with a hammer, the spreader fell out, so it obviously wasn't spreading as much as it should have.
Sprayed plenty of penetrating lube in and around the strut as well. All that did was give me PTSD from when I was trying to get snapped bolts out back in March.
As the girlfriend is going to be using the car for the next fortnight, I didn't want to do anything drastic that might take it off the road, so will just leave it a while.
Since the car was on axle stands I decided to fit the horn that @Thai-wronghorse sent me. Proper pain in the arse that was. Had to remove the foglight grill and take the foglight out to get the bolt for the high tone one back in. They don't make it easy for you. Remembered to test it before I'd put everything back together though. Nice to have a proper baaaaarp sound again.

they made one for the engines without aircon, should be able to find part number here mate https://seat.7zap.com/en/e/leon+leon+4/le/2002-268/anyone know how much shorter serpentine belt belt i would need without AC (Auq 05) it has not worked in years and the pulley is stuck, gonna just rip it off
That was what I was thinking when I visualised taking it apart - the spreader went in and the lower shock just pulled out like it had been covered in butter.With the correct size hub spreader no stress or amount of bashing is required.
I pull these apart very frequently and it only takes a few minutes to separate them once you know how.
Correct tooling and technique is key here.
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That was what I was thinking when I visualised taking it apart - the spreader went in and the lower shock just pulled out like it had been covered in butter.
I actually got two spreaders - one longer than the other - but the only way I can see it working effectively is if I can put it in between where the pinch bolt goes through, but that's blocked by the locator fin from the shock absorber.
It looks like these are definitely the original shocks - they have the VW/Audi branding on them - so it's possible something's happening below the surface, but from all the videos I've seen of spreaders, when they're in place properly, they're really wedged in there and they're certainly not falling out on their own.
What am I doing wrong?
what kind of lips/splitters yall got on fr bumper and where u got them from?
here's a better pic of it lifted, needs fatter tires for sureit looked way better on the ground and the wheel gap is horrendous but can drive stress free now and and damn it feels good compared to the 6 year old cheapest adjustable coils. power wise can't feel no change from the 3" decat, got to still get few bits before changing the stock tune.
Evening all. What a hot day... well I spent it on the sofa watching BTCC.. then cleaned a few fish tanks... then washed the dailey View attachment 25221
I washed my daily today.I got all in the race car mood from watching btcc , so went to the yard. From having to do modifications to the front panel I thought I would respray that. So gave it a sand down and scotchbrite . Cleaned it and gave it a 1 over with paint. View attachment 25223
Didn't come out to bad... even a bit shiney tooView attachment 25224
So that's now drying . So tomorrow after work I should be able to rebuild the front end 9f the thing so there's less stuff laying about the workshop. As we know stuff either goes missing some how. Or gets broken
Cooling fans not turning, so no AC.
Why now?