Shock Absorbers-MOT failure?

[CGreen98]

Hi, upon walking up to my car yesterday I noticed a shiny metallic thing in the wheel arch, upon checking this is what I found.

My MOT is due soon, would this count as an MOT failure? It looks like it is just the "Boot" that covers the shocks.





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[RUM4MO]

Oh dear, it looks like your bump stop has sheared off, probably helped by the "pipe cover" gripping it!

MOT tester could fail you maybe as now dust/grit will land on that damper piston rod and lead to early damper failure due to it starting to leak at the rod seal.

That repair to the rear damper area is very simple if you are handy with tools, first you need to buy two new bump stops, and if you are being smart, a few new fixing bolts and nuts. Essentially you need to get the car up on stands, wheels off > remove each lower bolt > from the inside of the wheel arches remove the 2 or 3 bolts holding each damper to the car, remove both dampers from the car > remove each damper top mounting > remove the old bump stops including any broken bits inside the "pipe covers" > fit "pipe covers" to the new bump stops > refit top mounts > refit dampers to the car bolting the tops on first followed by the bolt each side on the lower end > wheels back on > car off axle stands > job done.

This point is always an area in these cars that will fail at some point in its life, these bump stops seems to be made of material that must fail in that way!

Edited:- added an "an" to make more sense! (and an "f" caused by bad spelling skills!)

[CGreen98]

Oh dear, it looks like your bump stop has sheared off, probably helped by the "pipe cover" gripping it!

MOT tester could fail you maybe as now dust/grit will land on that damper piston rod and lead to early damper failure due to it starting to leak at the rod seal.

That repair to the rear damper area is very simple if you are handy with tools, first you need to buy two new bump stops, and if you are being smart, a few new fixing bolts and nuts. Essentially you need to get the car up on stands, wheels off > remove each lower bolt > from the inside of the wheel arches remove the 2 or 3 bolts holding each damper to the car, remove both dampers from the car > remove each damper top mounting > remove the old bump stops including any broken bits inside the "pipe covers" > fit "pipe covers" to the new bump stops > refit top mounts > refit dampers to the car bolting the tops on first followed by the bolt each side on the lower end > wheels back on > car of axle stands > job done.

This point is always area in these cars that will fail at some point in its life, these bump stops seems to be made of material that must fail in that way!

Thanks RUM4HO,
Thats made me feel a bit better about it now, I am not too handy with tools but my Dad is willing to have a go!

When I took it to VW for some issues I had after the emissions recall, where they kept the car for a week I asked them too look at into it and possibly do a quote. Unfortunately I think the service manager forgot and when I came to pick the car up and I asked as we were leaving he made some crazy excuse that it would cost a lot of money and you would have to drop the whole suspension arm or something along those lines... might I just add that it was 5:30pm on a Friday afternoon!

Thanks


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[CGreen98]

Here's a close up


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[RUM4MO]

Yes, now you can really see how carp that bump stop material is, if I remember correctly, when you buy these bump stops new they will be very white, then they seem to biodegrade, harden and get chopped by that cover, what year is your car as I have not needed to sort that yet on my daughter's late 2009 SEAT Ibiza, my wife's previous 2002 Polo did need them replaced though at some time in its life, the VW parts guy referred to these parts as the "salts and peppers" - which I suppose is what they look like before you fit them!

If you are in any way concerned about what needs to get done, Haynes do a repair manual, I bought mine a long time ago directly from Haynes on line.

[iichel]

I agree with RUN4MO, whose name I can now spell without looking it up 5 times. The quality of the bump stops is not very good.

I'm not sure whether they'll fail you on it, but it would be good to replace them. They are not very expensive and you'll only need a 17 and 16 mm socket and a 8(?) Mm spanner to do it, at the rears.

Eventually, sand and other foreign objects can make it into the shocks internals, causing them to leak oil. Leaky shocks ruin your ride quality and noise and will be mot failure.

[alexperkins]

They’re 15 Quid a side. They aren’t an MOT failure though. Mine have split on the Tiguan and it’s has MOTs at different places and they haven’t commented. I only found it last week and it’s definitely been like it a while!

[CGreen98]

I agree with RUN4MO, whose name I can now spell without looking it up 5 times. The quality of the bump stops is not very good.

I'm not sure whether they'll fail you on it, but it would be good to replace them. They are not very expensive and you'll only need a 17 and 16 mm socket and a 8(?) Mm spanner to do it, at the rears.

Eventually, sand and other foreign objects can make it into the shocks internals, causing them to leak oil. Leaky shocks ruin your ride quality and noise and will be mot failure.

I've noticed recently when revising or crawling slowly in traffic the car makes a very strange squeaking noise from the back... il get them changed asap and see if it makes a difference [emoji106]


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[RUM4MO]

I would think that that noise is just your rear disc pad(s) touching the rear discs, most of that can be avoided by cleaning out/up these brakes front and rear every year, though I still have not cleaned up/out wife's August 2015 Polo SEL brakes yet, I will do before it gets serviced this years as cleaning brakes now seems to be an added option during/after service!

So, if you feel that that bump stop will not cause an MOT and so a retest, just to be sure, either replace them both now, or, glue these orangy parts back together - I've never tried that but I can't see why it would not work for a month or so and that should completely avoid any comments during the MOT.

Edit:- a stupid MOT story concerning these bump stops or at least the cover, a friend's wife submitted their FIAT 127 for an MOT at a KwikFit place - pre MOT checks, while she was still there revealed that it needed two new rear shock absorbers due to these covers being degraded and cracked (probably due to FIAT junk parts fitted at factory), so she agreed to avoid an MOT fail sheet getting raised. New shock absorbers fitted, car went through MOT successfully and she drove it home, later her husband took a look at that car and while it had nice new shiny shock absorbers now, the old cracked covers were still there! He never did get an acceptable explanation from that KwikFit place - and all their scrap parts had been uplifted that day, so no proof of what condition old shockers had been in - remember they failed due to a visual check before starting the MOT!

Actually that KwikFit did do something good for that car while it was only a few days old, they fixed a puncture but they reckoned that puncture was caused by a screwdriver that just happened to be inside a tyre, trying to escape!!

[CGreen98]

I would think that that noise is just your rear disc pad(s) touching the rear discs, most of that can be avoided by cleaning out/up these brakes front and rear every year, though I still have not cleaned up/out wife's August 2015 Polo SEL brakes yet, I will do before it gets serviced this years as cleaning brakes now seems to be an added option during/after service!

So, if you feel that that bump stop will not cause an MOT and so a retest, just to be sure, either replace them both now, or, glue these orangy parts back together - I've never tried that but I can't see why it would not work for a month or so and that should completely avoid any comments during the MOT.

Edit:- a stupid MOT story concerning these bump stops or at least the cover, a friend's wife submitted their FIAT 127 for an MOT at a KwikFit place - pre MOT checks, while she was still there revealed that it needed two new rear shock absorbers due to these covers being degraded and cracked (probably due to FIAT junk parts fitted at factory), so she agreed to avoid an MOT fail sheet getting raised. New shock absorbers fitted, car went through MOT successfully and she drove it home, later her husband took a look at that car and while it had nice new shiny shock absorbers now, the old cracked covers were still there! He never did get an acceptable explanation from that KwikFit place - and all their scrap parts had been uplifted that day, so no proof of what condition old shockers had been in - remember they failed due to a visual check before starting the MOT!

Actually that KwikFit did do something good for that car while it was only a few days old, they fixed a puncture but they reckoned that puncture was caused by a screwdriver that just happened to be inside a tyre, trying to escape!!

Yes thinking about it I think you are right about it being the rear brakes. My brakes really do need some TLC I don't think they've ever been changed in 7 years. That's why I was hoping these shocks wouldn't be a failure as I am already expecting a huge bill when it comes to the MOT for Brakes [emoji31].

My garage are normally very honest with the MOT work, and considering VW said it wasn't a big issue I doubt they would fail it. But I guess as they will already have the wheels off to to replace the brakes I might as well let them do the shock covers too.

Thanks!


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