Upper strut bushings

I took my valuable TDI JSW into the dealer today to have the sunroof recall taken care of. The note they gave me says, "recommned front upper strut bushings collapsed est to replace $ 277.60 plus tax." (spelling not corrected)

That is just the bushings, not the struts. My struts are fine. I just got told by someone else the bushings do collapse over time. What do others have to say about this? I ordered aftermarket bushings and bearings, for less than the VW part department wanted for just the bushings. Am I crazy to consider replacing the bushings but not the struts?

They're soft and rubber. They do get pretty squished after time. What year are you talking about here? JSW is 2009+....right?

NB_TDi said:

They're soft and rubber. They do get pretty squished after time. What year are you talking about here? JSW is 2009+....right?

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2005 Jetta Wagon GLS TDI PD and probably a bunch of other initials.

How many miles? Might be worth doing a set of struts at the same time. Mine were kaput at 133k.

105,000 miles as of yesterday.

Most seem to think the struts would be dead at this point in time.

At 60k miles, the passenger-side bushing/bearing froze on my '04 R32 and the spring broke as a result. The driver's-side is shot, too! I didn't know that these things all fail, and (I'm now told) usually well before mine did. If this is a nearly-universal problem, shouldn't it be listed in the maintenance schedule as a wear/replacement item? How the hell does VW get away with this without warrantying it, or at least telling you, up front, that you'll be shelling out over $500 every 50-60k miles for the honor of driving a VW?

Tons of cars have front struts...are they all this wear prone?

From the reading I've done here, most seem to think the struts (at least for the regular TDI's) are toast at or by 40kmiles. [Many of us are oblivious to this and just keep driving 'til past 100k though). Strut bearing that freezes up, and breaks a spring, that sounds like the odd gremlin--the one that occurs to every 10 millionth car. Sucks to be that guy. But this is the first I've heard of one of these springs failing.

Don't confuse the shock-absorbing function of the strut with the steering (turning/twisting) function. The strut assembly has such a hard life because it has to perform both these functions under a fair amount of stress. My struts, as shock absorbers, are still functioning adequately. It's the steering function (the bearings) that's compromised. When the bearing (at the top of the strut) completely freezes, then the spring begins twisting whenever you turn the steering wheel. Mind you, you never hear anything or feel anything untoward in the feel of the steering while this is occurring. If this goes on for a quite awhile, and one day you happen to crank the wheel way over to pull out of a tight space...TWANG! The spring has had enough and just lets go. That doesn't surprise me at all. Even the failure of a "lifetime-lubed" bearing isn't that much of a surprise. What I can't handle is that, if these bearings fail this regularly and this soon, VW should warranty them if they're not going to provide a means to service/lube them. And, the way the VW owner community just accepts the status quo so matter-of-factly is just astounding to me.

And by the way, the bearings on both struts on my R32 were shot/rattling before 50k miles...I just assumed that the rattling was sway bar bushings or something like that. Heck, my brake pads rattled just as loud from day 1. Obviously, in hindsight, I should have checked out those rattles, but they were so minor that I just mentally wrote them off without really thinking about them. After all, strut bearings are never mentioned in the service booklet...