Ive had the pleasure [/sarcasm] of working on a few Vws lately. One a 99 Beetle, the other a 03 Jetta.

Both of these have the same front strut design which is kind of different from any I've seen before. The top strut mount is a round rubber cap sort of deal. It sits in the strut tower and is "held in place" with a cup type thing bolted on top to the strut shaft.

Both of these cars seem to have had severely worn out upper mounts. With the car on the lift I could move each front wheel almost an inch up before the upper mount seated into the strut tower.

That doesn't seem "normal" to me but this is a mount design I've never seen before. Are these mounts supposed to just "float" in the tower?

It seems to me like the wheel would start hopping off the road if you drive over a really rough surface.

 

I've searched google, and searched Alldata looking for TSBs, and really haven't found anything about this. But maybe VW people call the mounts something different? I dunno.

Like this?

http://www.fototime.com/23A6274A04E134C/orig.jpg

davebugs but i haven't seen or heard from him in awhile, boo for that.

Nipper, yes, just like that.

28 is the mount cushion that is below the tower, 26 is the little cup thing that sits on top of the tower.

davebugs but i haven't seen or heard from him in awhile, boo for that.

Davebugs - Last Active Aug 24 2013

 

I hope he is alright...

Nipper, yes, just like that.

28 is the mount cushion that is below the tower, 26 is the little cup thing that sits on top of the tower.

  Thereshold be no play there. Usually when there is play there is an odd noise reported.

Yes that's what I figured. I could understand a little bit of compression of the mount cushion when there is weight on it, but these just seem like they're totally collapsed. With the car sitting on the ground, the little cup on top is sitting 3/4-1" above the top of the strut tower. I would think that is supposed to sit directly on the tower, or maybe only slightly above it.

Just seems like a bad design to me.

 

 

Didn't Dave have some back problems? Seems to me he was having some trouble after an accident or something and sold all of his Subaru stuff. I could be thinking of someone else.

VW always has to go their own way, usually with a 600.00 USD repair bill.

That's about right too! We priced new struts (whole unit w/spring) at about $200 a side and labor at just over an hour per side.

o.k. guys - just logged on to contact Shawn.

 

Yes Dave had a bad accident 5+ years ago.  Can't play in the garage anymore.  Folks still stop by or call for advice/parts for VW's(60's/70's, MKIV) and late 90's Subaru's.

 

Concussion issues (still - multitasking issues, short term memory),  neck & back issues, some neck fusion.  Can't turn a wrench or sneeze without neck muscles spasm.  Chronic pain - mostly nerve pain.  Just haven't been able to bring myself to get gov't help.  But my personal reserves have dwindled drastically.

Struggling thru.  Can't do the work I did, can't play with cars or load the car to get to my weekend place, maintain the house or weekend place, etc...

 

I believe you can still get to my email from here.  But I hadn't logged in in years.

 

 

Our old friend Skip called me last night.  Wants to donate some stuff to the club and asked me to handle it.  Thus my looking for Shawn's contact info - realizing it's Easter weekend.  But some urgency.  And the older stuff I have no idea what has value or is hard to get and what doesn't.

 

Those that have benefited from Skips knowledge and assistance through the years may want to say a little prayer for him.  Tough times.

 

Skip is how I found out about this wonderful forum and I had the privilege of learning a lot from Skip.

 

I did leave a voicemail for GrossGary since we used to help each other out from time to time and he's been here several times.

 

Glad to see the new format on the website.  Hope everyone here is doing well.

 

In classic Skip style he'd like to kinda "pay it forward" even more.  You know how us folks who appreciate old cars are.  We'd like to save all the old cars.  And certainly cars and parts that we have scavenged over the years.

 

I will make a post - not sure where - after talking with Shawn.

 

But please keep Skip in your thoughts.  He has some good folks doing what they can for him friends, family, folks from several forums(non Subaru) as he had many interests.