veteran wrote:grpolo,
By 'base of suspension', are you referring to the lower 'control arms' (often called 'wishbones'), or do you mean the lower end of the coilspring, where it sits against the damper in a sort of cupped seat?
If so, I can certainly understand road-dirt collecting in that cupped seat. But apart from the very base of the coilspring itself, I can't see that there'd be two surfaces normally grating together that much. As often as not, the coilspring seating on the damper is manufactured with some small holes in it, to allow rainwater and other debris to drop away and not cause corrosion there. But on all the cars I've had that have used this same more-or-less 'MacPherson strut' kind of suspension, they've all suffered from those holes eventually getting blocked. Sometimes a robust flat nylon or rubber washer is fitted between spring and seat, to act as a bit of a buffer. Every time I serviced the brakes I'd give that area an inspection and cleanup, and would apply some Waxoyl. Looks like I'll have to do the same with my nearly-new Polo 1.2.
Well i cannot discribe it better in english so here take a picture.
Stick the pressure washer in there and work it around, my karcher works at 160bar and it gets the job done.
As for the hardware stuff you mentioned, well it should not happen but it does, on my golf mk4 GTI & mk5 GTI this never was an issue and i even driven them on dirt roads.
I watched the videos posted for the squeaks mine did exactly the same thing, the longer you left it like that the louder and uglier the squeking was, even going down the garage ramp would make it squeak.
You eventually get scared listening to it, its like something is broken and there is friction between metal & metal.
