Ive recently bought a new toy (VAG 20v turbo) but the car is literally the lowest it can possibly go on FK coilovers. When I MOT'd the car I had a look underneath and to put it in simple terms they look like theyve been sat in a river for a year.. Ive not got the spanner to adjust them.. do i need two spanners or just one? Im guessing to higher the car up I need to wind them upwards? Its got independant rear suspension where the spring is sat in the rear arm and the shock is seperate.. looks tight for room. The tracking is a mile out and it scrubs the inside of all 4 tyres out within 1000 miles and its too low to track. Do i stand much chance of freeing these off? Soak the threaded area in WD40 for a few days?

 

Soak em.... what can it hurt

 

i bought some spanners cheap on ebay when i did my r32, the spanners didnt fit properly though i just had to adjust them sligtly to fit, clean the thread up with a wire brush and soak with wd40 and have a go, get 2 spanners aswell and if you dont have means of cutting/welding to alter the spanners then make sure you get the right size spanners.

 

Wd40 is your friend

 

clean off with a wire brush as much as poss, take wheels off so you can get a drill in there with wire attachment, then to bit you cant get to under the locking rings, as said soak with wd40 or diesel for a day or so and have a go.

get some decent spanners, as the pressed ones will snap the locating tabs off when persuaded with a mallet lol

 

Cheap vinegar is great for rust. But you have to keep it on for a few days. Maybe tie some rag around it and keep it wet? But it will literally dissolve the rust.

 

Top Tip!!

Good luck to you, when I stripped my Almera GTi i had the same issue before sending the coil-overs off once sold, I had them in a vice and wire-brushed, WD-40, worked the nuts along the entire length of thread, what a ball ache!! I can second the comment about buying some decent C spanners, the ones which came with it were pish! luckily i acquired some good ones from work,

 

wurth make a couple of products:

crafty rost off and rost off plus.....

I have used crafty rost off in the past to encourage various bits of engine, brakes and suspension to come apart! I would the use of this, let it soak in then use a hot air heat gun, a bit of brute force, more lubricant some more force and heat and it normally did it!

I would how ever remove as much rust from the exposed screw as poss with a powered wire brush be it drill or dremel powered depending on access!

 

the rear set up will go rusty pretty quickly even from new, mine are terrible for it

u can try and fight with them in situ, or i choose to remove the spring and adjusters completely and sort them off the car. its only a matter of dropping the bolt out the bottom of the cup that retinas it to the arm, and then drop the bolt out the bottom of the shock to release the spring.

once they are off, i put the complete adjuster cup in the vice, clean the threads thoroughly with a wire brush, spray heavily in wd40, and leave for 5, then run the rings up and off 1 at a time with the c-spanners and a bar on them for extra leverage. once completely off, give them a real good clean up. same with the threads in the locking rings. then i paint them with copper grease, run the rings back down to the right position, lock them together, and reassemble, n maybe paint even more copper grease onto the threads, the more the merrier!

 

Thanks people.

Are the back springs easy to get out of the arms? its a Leon Cupra R 53 reg

I did some on a Focus MK1 once and never again, ended up snapping the bolts trying to get the bottom shock bolt out and even then it was nigh on impossible to get the springs inside the trailing arm, I had me underneath trying to seat it, one person with a bar on the arm and one person stood on he brake disc.. nightmare.

Reason I ask is i may take them out to do it, or i may have to replace them as one of the fronts is showing signs of leaking

 

If the leon's the same as our A3, to take the springs off the rear, jack the car right up in the air, undo the bottom of the shocker, pull spring out...
Not even gotta take the wheel off...
To free platforms off, you could always use a big bar and a hammer in the groove's, twat it clockwise or anticlockwise... They'll soon move...

 

Leon, golf etc all the same as far as im aware

Will have a look, cheers

 

Well its safe to say these fuckers aint coming undone

 

You havnt cleaned the threads off!

wire brush what you can get to with a drill, dremmel etc and give them a good soaking in wd or similar.

if the c spanners are no good, get a steel bar on the left hand cutout of the bottom locking ring and twat with a big mallet.

this will screw it down the length of the shock and then do the same with the upper ring.

once they move a bit, take the shock off, remove the spring and then you can get to the upper threads to clean them off.

its not going to be a quick fix as its gonna take some time and effort.

 

1) Brush off with a stiff wire brush as much loose crud as possible
2) soak in Diesel
3)repeat 1&2 a few times
4)Batter the lock ring slighty off the adjustment ring
5) soak in Diesel
6) Batter the adjustment ring round half a turn, back it off, another half turn, back it off etc. this will cut through the crap & the backwards turn will let all the crud fall out, meaning each half turn should be fairly easy.

 

Jack handles work a treat in the grooves with a big hammer...

Replacement coilovers won't break the bank if needs be???

 

There are some JOM coilovers on eBay, Ł164.99 posted a set.

Cheers for the advice people. Was hoping I could crack them off in situ but if its going to be a pure knuckle scraping, back breaking effort and Im going to have to end up removing them to adjust them I minds aswell just buy a replacement set. The nuts and bolts holding them to the hub etc are well rotten too so will have replace all those, seems odd for a VAG car my other one wasnt as bad.

 

they will come undone fine if u clean the threads, then start to loosen the locking ring with some impact from a hammer and bar. once its started to turn, it will carry on with the c-spanner just fine. mine looked pretty much the same, and my rears were even worse!

cheap ebay coilovers come with cheapo coatings, so even new 1s will end up like this very quickly.