Dodgy VW dealer fixes

[Sparkyis]

So….. in the quest for silence after having great success replacing rear arb bushes, shocks and updated spring seats, I decided after watching autodoc videos on YouTube that I would replace the drop links and front arb bushes too because now that the rear is quiet I became aware of them!

So….after an absolute nightmare dremelling, grinding, drilling, etc. etc. to eventually remove the drop links, I got round to replacing front arb bushes first as it’s easier when the drop links are off as you can move the anti roll bar to a good position for torquing bolts etc.

I wondered what the spacer was that had been inserted between the near side arb bush and the chassis (the knocking side that was offending me, incidentally)……

2 X 2 PENCE PIECES!!!!

I kid you not.

I am the second owner of the van and it had only been serviced by a main VW dealer in Northern Ireland before I took ownership.

Wonder how much they charged the previous owner for this 4p fix

I’d love to hear other random stories of discoveries made under the skins of your vans as you complete work yourselves!

Anyway, good result for me, totally quiet over bumps and cobbles so the hours of drop link removal was worth it and the bodge gave me a bit of light relief on a much longer than expected job!

 

[JOG]

I really thought you were joking until I saw the pics. Wow!!!

 

[dubber36]

At least you're in profit.

 

[Dellmassive]

Like it....

 

[Paynewright]

When I first looked at my van at the VW dealers I noticed one of the lashing eyes was loose. Yeah, we’ll sort that.

Roll on a few months and I was doing some work on it (floor sound deadening) and found loads of metal swarfe around the dodgy fixing. Explored further and they’d drilled out the floor, bent the threaded fixing out of the way and use a rubber well nut!

All it needed was a tap running through the original fixing!

I dread to think what would have happened if used to hold something heavy down! Probably would have pulled out tensioning the straps!

 

[Sparkyis]

When I first looked at my van at the VW dealers I noticed one of the lashing eyes was loose. Yeah, we’ll sort that.

Roll on a few months and I was doing some work on it (floor sound deadening) and found loads of metal swarfe around the dodgy fixing. Explored further and they’d drilled out the floor, bent the threaded fixing out of the way and use a rubber well nut!

All it needed was a tap running through the original fixing!

I dread to think what would have happened if used to hold something heavy down! Probably would have pulled out tensioning the straps!

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Great story and exactly what I was getting at….not so great for you but at least you discovered it before something broke loose!!! I guess we all have those “I can’t be bothered” days at work

 

[Paynewright]

The thing I cannot get my head around is that the proper fix would have taken less time than the bodge (assuming they had an M8 tap)

 

[CRS Performance]

So….. in the quest for silence after having great success replacing rear arb bushes, shocks and updated spring seats, I decided after watching autodoc videos on YouTube that I would replace the drop links and front arb bushes too because now that the rear is quiet I became aware of them!

So….after an absolute nightmare dremelling, grinding, drilling, etc. etc. to eventually remove the drop links, I got round to replacing front arb bushes first as it’s easier when the drop links are off as you can move the anti roll bar to a good position for torquing bolts etc.

I wondered what the spacer was that had been inserted between the near side arb bush and the chassis (the knocking side that was offending me, incidentally)……

2 X 2 PENCE PIECES!!!!

I kid you not.

I am the second owner of the van and it had only been serviced by a main VW dealer in Northern Ireland before I took ownership.

Wonder how much they charged the previous owner for this 4p fix

I’d love to hear other random stories of discoveries made under the skins of your vans as you complete work yourselves!

Anyway, good result for me, totally quiet over bumps and cobbles so the hours of drop link removal was worth it and the bodge gave me a bit of light relief on a much longer than expected job!

View attachment 221006

View attachment 221007

 

[CRS Performance]

Hows this beauty

Customer promised a big upgrade from standard , B4 and H&R springs ?

The 40 mm spring went down 60 mm ( van was too heavy for them ) the shocks were installed incorrectly , the dust cover was upside down on one side the grey plastic covers on the original shocks were added over the bump stops on the new shocks to stop them working properly .