MK4 Golf GT TDi, do you HAVE to take rear wheels off to replace coilsprings?

DJMK4

DJMK4

DJMK4

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Im changing my rear coilsprings on the weekend however I have just noticed that one or two nuts on the passenger side rear wheel have slightly rounded and which ever garage did them up last did them far too much, I cannot get them off.

Can the coilsprings be replaced with the rear wheels on or do they have to come off?
 
spaz said:
Regardless I'd have thought it'd be better in the long run to get the nuts off anyway.
Click to expand...

True, but the work NEEDS to be done tomorrow morning, first thing, I maybe able to take it to a garage, get them to loosen them, apply some wd40, do them up abit, drive a short distance home. But i dont know if they are open tomorrow.

The nuts will be replaced
 
If its got a rear beam, you can simply undo the bottom shock mounts on both sides and drop the beam down and slide the springs out, you need to jack up both sides of the car though, can't do it with one side on the floor.
 
OK, managed to get the wheels off, in the middle of doing the job now, if i compress the springs (like in the pic) nothings going to fling out and hit me in the face is it?? giving me eggface?

springs.jpg


Other option is to undo the bottom shock mounts as previous poster suggested, but again, is it just a simple case of undoing shock mounts at bottom, taking them out and something will lower??

Could anyone reccomend the best/easiest way of getting these springs out so i can put new ones in.ta.
 
Surely, compress them lots (using more coils than you have done and a compressor/spring clamp on each side of the spring else you could get some nasty injuries), if that doesn't work, take off the lower shock bolt, should allow the hub to drop a little more giving some more space to remove the spring.
 
Its easier if you use another jack and jack the arm up compressing the spring. Then apply the compressors, and slowly let the jack under the arm down. This way you dont have to spend ages winding the darn things up. Also you should really have two of them. using only one I wouldn not recomend.
 
If you undo both sides the arm swings drops down till it stops on a special tie to stop it going too low, then the springs simply fall out, trolly jack it back up and place the bolts back in, its childs play.

Spring compressors on the rear are a pain due to the lower spring cups and lack of space to get them in.
 
All done, i didnt use the compressor tool, too much faffing about, like most of you said, undo both shock bolts, came down with abit of a bang! lol.

New springs in, jacked up, bolts in, wheels on, road tested,curbs, road humps, doing abit of swaying in the road ;):p s'all good.

Thats my manly thing done for the day.
 
They failed on the MOT, two different centres (one reputable one who I know), the old ones wernt damaged as such, but the protective paint coating had come off down the bottom and they had started to rust. So im assuming thats why he failed based on (Coil Springs - Fractured (Broken)
 
Err... were they broken or not. You might not see it if you don't know what the end of the spring should look like but generally speaking if the end of the spring isn't square then there is a bit broken off. :D

Should only fail if broken, a little rust/paint flaking off on the spring surface is normal.
 
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