Struttin'

It's been a busy time so I've neglected you dear readers. So now I'll take you back a couple months. Angie and I jumped in the 2015 VW Jetta TDI to go to dinner. As we backed out of the driveway the front end of the car made a funny sound and as we headed down the road it pulled hard to the left. Here in the US we drive on the right side of the road and the road is crowned in the middle so you generally steer a little left to fight that crown. So its a weird feeling to have to steer right to fight a left hand pull.

When I jacked the car up to look at it I found: 

What are we looking at? Well the picture is actually upside down, this is the top of the strut and that spring should be pushing down (well, up, the picture is upside down remember) into the cup.

Yeah, broken spring. I've never had that happen before. By the look of the rust the break occurred a while before I found it. The noise and weird steering were from the bearing at the top of the strut disintegrating.

This is a job I DEFINITELY should have farmed out. I'd done rear struts on the '98 Jetta and '05 Golf but the fronts turn out to be held in by a totally different mechanism. On these the strut tube is clamped at the bottom. Replacing the driver's side I ruined a big screw driver prying the clamp apart. Then I didn't have the right socket to get the axle nut off so I decided I'd remove the axle from the inside, at the transaxle.

Big mistake, I'd already disconnected the strut at the top so when I undid the last inner bolt the whole assembly fell out on my head. It gashed my forehead and rang my bell pretty good. I finished the job on pure pig headedness.

After that debacle I bought the proper tools. ID Parts sells a cam action spreader for the strut clamp. They also had the proper 24mm triple square socket for the axle nut and the triple square driver for the pinch bolt in the clamp. The passenger side has clearance issues but the correct tools made the job MUCH easier. I still need to pick up a 16mm socket, this car is plagued with 16mm bolts but the sockets don't come in most kits...

Working on the passenger side I did manage to rip the wheel sensor cable apart. 

From VW they're VERY expensive. Parts Geek had one at a much more reasonable price. You do still have to splice it into the line. I find this pretty cheezy, any cable that hangs out in space is going to get ripped off occasionally, they should be easier to replace.

Carnage, you can see how, with the bearing failure, the spring could come right out of the one strut.

Did I need to replace both struts? Technically no, the car would have been fine with only one replacement but the driver's side sat a little higher after replacement so it made sense to do both. They came as a set anyway...