Toads Wild Ride

[rperks]

I have been searching the archives to little avail on this one. My Golf is pushing 250,000 and the suspension has been through 2" lifts, bilstien Hd and now Koni Red. I know it is in need of ball joints, bushings and rod ends, things are a little klunky. The odd thing though is the fact that it has been like toads wild ride since a bottom out on a pot hole a few months back. I thought something may have snapped with the sway bar, but a check yesterday looked like everything was intact in that department. The Koni struts still seem to be damping things, but the amplitude of suspension sway is nuts. If i give it a good hard push with my hand while the car is parked there is a single oscillation and it settles down. On the road it just keeps wildly bouncing up and down.

At this point I would speculate that the springs have given up and are the weak link in the spring mass damper system, but would love to hear back from somebody who may have had these symptoms and found a working fix.

 

[Chris]

Short of breaking, I don't think spring rates degrade with time. They might sag somewhat but that would strictly be a reduction in ride height, not vehicle dynamics.
I'd investigate the sway bar and components again. It's possible that the sway bar is cracked where you can't see it.

 

[rperks]

I was thinking the same thing, sort of. I have not pulled the whole front end apart yet to inspect. Just what I could see crawling under with the golf up on ramps

What I could find from searching was that people are starting to replace their springs for a variety of reasons, described as wear? I have been running the 2blue3white dot springs for a decade now. Short of a change in spring rate I am not sure what could lead to in increased amplitude of motion other than the sway bar. I have never "broken" spring in a car before and wondering if they somehow have gotten fatigue cracks?

I love my old car, but am not sure how much I want to throw at it. 13 years of near perfect service with nothing but oil changes, timing belts and 1 clutch at 185,000 mile it is hard to complain, and I have been spoiled

 

[dogdots]

Its not worth fixing. I will give you a dollar for it.

Seriously though, I just did a suspension refresh on my green 2000 Golf tdi this weekend with VR6 springs and new struts, springs, mounts, strut bearings, bump stops, etc. and I spent a total of $340 for the parts shipped to my door. After 209k the original suspension was toast. Only 1 strut still had any semblance of proper function.

I have read that some folks actually remove the sway bar to no ill effect but I have never tried it myself.

 

[Graham Line]

Maybe you poked a strut through the sheet metal tower?

 

[rperks]

The strut towers are still intact, and everything is symmetrical.

I think a full refresh kit will be the starting point. I also am pretty sure I have the original low milage front springs from when I switched to VR6 10 years ago. While not optimum, they should at least give me a control point to gauge change.

 

[Chris]

While it sounds as if you've checked, make sure you haven't broken a spring at one of the corners.

 

[turboboost1]

Springs would not cause a change in amplitude. That is the job of shocks to keep suspension motion and amplitude down. The push test on shocks is not reliable. You probably blew out the valving system on one of your struts.. Replace them.

 

[BobnOH]

Might be worth taking to a good shop for estimate/evaluation. You may be able to do it yourself, you need a big pry bar to put pressure on the various components

 

[TDI Mason]

Sounds to me that one or more of your shocks or struts totally bit the dust and you have no dampening, like you're riding on springs alone, giving you that wonky waterbed feeling.

 

[Chris]

Springs would not cause a change in amplitude. That is the job of shocks to keep suspension motion and amplitude down. The push test on shocks is not reliable. You probably blew out the valving system on one of your struts.. Replace them.

I was thinking that the uneven support at one end of the car would induce a rolling wallow.
Seemed like an easy enough thing to check...