Captain Bodge Car Lowering Techniques

[Sonicriot13 0]

Well, what a weekend. Offered to give my (completely clueless) mate a hand with the suspension on his mk4 GTI that he bought last week. Basically all four shocks were blown to pieces. The car was on standard shocks and springs and was sitting very, very low so alarm bells were ringing as soon as I took one look at it. First of all I got the car jacked up at the front and went to remove the wheels. I find that the first wheel I look at only has four nuts when there should be five. Checked the next wheel and same story. The goit who sold it has only nabbed the locking wheel nuts! :lol: My mate at this point was just starting to simmer gently. With the wheels off I found this little number :shock:!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

The spring has been cut with everything still on the car and that coil was stuck in there. Unbelievable. Anyway got on with the task at hand and fitted the new shock and spring on the passenger side. Then found that no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get the new shock to fit on the other side. I've been working on it all today and got nowhere. I just don't know what has happened. I'm worried that something has been damaged or bent while there's been no damping but everything that I can see looks straight. It's really annoying because I'm used to muddling through things as invariably something always goes wrong when you're working on a car but the vast majority of the time I get the job done. This is the first time in goodness knows how long where I've just had to hold my hands up and admit defeat. We're now going to get someone out to have a look. If there's one thing I hate it's people who bodge things! My mate has obviously boiled over now. I'm just finding things wrong left right and center. Too many things to list.

 

And because of all this I've got nothing done to the valver this weekend at all. :mad: :mad: :mad: :censored: :censored: :censored:

[Jim 1]

Good god. Some people do the most insane things in the pursuit of saving money!! :shock:

[Sonicriot13 0]

My mate is absolutely stewing about it. He's basically just bought an absolute dud. It idles real rough like it's on three cylinders. The oil that came out was more like mud. The driver's front brake disc rattles around when the wheel is taken off because the retaining screw has sheared off somehow leaving the length of the screw stuck in the hub. That ain't coming out any time soon if ever. Why he bought it I just don't know. I guess he just didn't know what he was looking at, but what he is looking at now is a restoration project I reckon.

[Yandards 0]

Mumn, not good at all.

 

Wonder if it was a 'customz lowerinz shopz' that did it?

[Toad 0]

Hmmmm. Might have to try that on my vr... looks quality... What's best? Angle grinder or gas? :lol:

 

Some people should not be allowed spanners.

[boost monkey 0]

My mate is absolutely stewing about it. He's basically just bought an absolute dud. It idles real rough like it's on three cylinders. The oil that came out was more like mud. The driver's front brake disc rattles around when the wheel is taken off because the retaining screw has sheared off somehow leaving the length of the screw stuck in the hub. That ain't coming out any time soon if ever. Why he bought it I just don't know. I guess he just didn't know what he was looking at, but what he is looking at now is a restoration project I reckon.

 

Oh dear, sounds like a bit of a kipper. How long has he had it? Private sale i'm guessing (or I hope with suspension like that on it!)

 

Have the same brake disc locating screw issue on the Jetta and on Prodigal's G60. They're not an MOT failure as they're literally only there to hold the disc in alignment with bolt holes when the wheel's off. Although it is very annoying!

 

Btw, I wouldn't bother trying to get that snapped disc locating bolt out of the hub: I broke a decent tap and die set piece trying it on the Jetta! :(

 

they're only 239 hubs anyways so no big loss.

[n3p 3]

The oil that came out was more like mud.

 

lol! :D

[vwdeviant 0]

IIRC eveny on a sold as seem private sale you still have 14 days grace in which if anything goes wrong the previous owner has a legal resposability to pay for the repairs... It's obviously longer (30 days??) for Trade bought cars...

 

Go back to the owner point this out and aske for the money for your time and all the parts, point out that if it was a garage he'd be paying 2/3 times what you want!

[Rob Heath 0]

Some people really shouldnt be allowed to own cars....what goes through someones head when angle grinding car springs :shock:

[nocrap 0]

Surely this brings up a topic of a previous post about everyone having to MOT their car when selling it.....

[Sonicriot13 0]

It was a private sale and he got it about a week ago. He didn't even get a hand written receipt or anything. He made no attempt to check the car's history and as far as I'm aware the only paper work he got was a service schedule last stamped in 2005 and the new keeper's supplement! He basically got over excited with the thought of buying a new car and lost his head. Couldn't be bothered to wait for me or anyone else to check it out before he bought it. He is all like "woe is me, the world hates me" when it's his fault. He's doubting my abilities because I can't get this shock on when all I wanted to do was help him out. I had to send him away yesterday because he was just standing there swearing at the top of his voice and smoking 2 cigarettes a minute which really wasn't helping. And I have this car stuck on my parent's drive an they're back from holiday on Friday. He hasn't got the initiative to open the yellow pages and phone a mechanic himself so I'm stuck with it basically. Thinking of taking the hub off completely and fitting it to the shock and attaching the whole lot back to the car. If I decide that's too tw*tty I'll just call someone out and my mate can pay for it.

 

Oh, and he's too scared to go back to the guy he bought it from. And I ain't doing it. Why should I? I'm in the process of selling my grandma's house and finding somewhere to live.

[Supercharged 2]

Bonkers - especially on a mk4! there are some idiots about...

 

Whats the problem with the shock then? why won't it go in??

[dr_mat 0]

You have no legal comeback if it's a private sale. There is nothing, anywhere, in law that says you have 14 days or 7 days or 10 minutes! You made a personal agreement with someone with no witnesses..

Your only hope is if you can prove that the seller mis-described the car, but if he never said anything about it, there's nothing you can do (other than maybe hope he'll come clean and offer some compensation for the faults).

As no doubt Sonicriot13 and his mate already knows ...

[Supercharged 2]

As Mat says it's 'sold as seen' - especially with no receipt but he must have removed the locking wheel nuts and to sell a car like this as roadworthy and let someone drive off in it deserves a good kicking at the very least...

[Toad 0]

As Mat says it's 'sold as seen' - especially with no receipt but he must have removed the locking wheel nuts and to sell a car like this as roadworthy and let someone drive off in it deserves a good kicking at the very least...

 

Poo through his letterbox... but after the postman has been... wouldn't want to affect an innocent party.

[Sonicriot13 0]

Well, I've explained the situation to my parent's and they're ok with it thank goodness. Think they're used to me by now anyway! :lol: I don't have a clue why it won't go on. There isn't enough room to seat the mounting rubber at the top of the shock and locate the bottom of the strut in the hub. I've tried everything I can think of doing apart from removing the hub completely and fitting the bottom of the strut in the split housing while it's off the car. Then connecting it all back up. I just need to get this shock on so I can get it off my parent's drive and to a professional. The weird thing is the other side just went straight in. I can't believe someone would sell a car like this, but most of all I can't believe someone would buy it! :lol:

[Sonicriot13 0]

Oh, I've found the ad for it. Clicky:

 

http://atsearch.autotrader.co.uk/www/ca ... searched=Y

 

It's the silver one marked up at £3,200. Note no mention whatsoever of what condition it's in!

[Supercharged 2]

LOL - Ipswich...

 

The shock thing is bound to be someething stupid altho taking the hub off shouldn't take long... are you using the scissor jack to lift the car?

[Sonicriot13 0]

LOL - Ipswich...

 

The shock thing is bound to be someething stupid altho taking the hub off shouldn't take long... are you using the scissor jack to lift the car?

 

Yes mate - Ipswich! :lol:

 

I'm using my trolley jack and axle stands. There is no scissor jack. The spare wheel kit isn't there either! :lol: :cry: :lol: :cry: He didn't even check the boot to make sure the spare wheel kit was there....

[Supercharged 2]

LOL - this worries me as I have been looking at MK4's to replace my mums mk3 and i'd assumed they were still 'new' enough not to have been fooked around with but they are nearly 10 years old now...

[Sonicriot13 0]

Well, if you want mate I'll come to viewings with you. Over these last few days I've gathered enough information to put together Sonicriot13's patented Mk4 Golf 32,563,253 point inspection. :lol:

[12 DEG BEN 0]

So if im reading this right the spring and shock assembly is too long to fit between the top mount seat and the 2 bolts to the hub. Have you tried spring compressors and depressing the shock whilst fitting. You probably have. I do know from working on a 4motion that the struts are massively long. When you jack up the car the wheels seem to fall off the thing.

[Sonicriot13 0]

Yeah, tried compressing the springs but then the compressors just get in the way when you try to fit it. I'm gonna have a look at it tonight. Maybe it was just fatigue over the weekend and I was missing something. My mentality with it now though is the old one came off so the new one can go back on again. I've done shocks before for goodness sake.

 

How can a mk4 be such a shonky old tub?

[Phil K 0]

Looking at it in the pics on autotrader you can almost tell it was owned by a tw@ :lol:

 

Best of luck getting it sorted though - your mate obviously doesn't appreciate your help or care about his own life all that much... who needs enemies?

[corozin 0]

Out of interest, has this car got a recent MOT? I'd seriously consider contacting the DfT if it has a recent ticket and you suspect the springs were on it at the time