9n3 GTI Shocks and Camber Questions

[James Christians_Nam]

Hi guys,

So I had some over the weekend to remove the front shocks and swap them to the opposite side (right to left and vice versa). And once I was done I saw the camber on the left wheel where it was negative originally was now fine and the problem has shifted to the right wheel. So I can safely saw that shock is busted. Its invisible when I looked at the shocks side by side. I am now planning to replace the ball joints, tie rods, sway bar links and shocks. Im glad it wasnt the steering knuckle.

By the way it was a **** ton of work. I did it all alone, my arms still hurt from wrestling with the shock to go back into the knuckle. I used a piston jack to push them out.

[James Christians_Nam]

Hi guys,

So I got around to replacing my shocks, control arms, control arm bushes, ball joints and stabilizer links and the my camber is fine now. I have about -1.01 on both sides. Im very happy. The shocks we shot. I swapped the right and left shocks before I replaced them and the camber problem shifted to the other side. But replaced everything anyway. But a new problem has come up... The new control arms are rubbing against the subframe. I think its the subframe. It very weird. I have poly bushes in now. Im thinking I should just get a thin file and file away at the area on the control arm rather than the sub frame. I think my sub frame is bent anyhow. Because everything else is new but that and because the left wheel sits of center in the arch? Like the distance from the rear hub to the front hub is less on the left side than on the right. The right wheel sits in the middle of the arch.

I hope Im making sense. Im not going to try and sort this out now. It seems easy enough to replace the subframe but I think the steering rack is mounted on the subframe.

[panic-mechanic]

The subframe holes has a little bit of play on them and probably moved when ot was hit. Undo the ones holding it to the body and shift the whole subframe towards the side you need.

[James Christians_Nam]

Thanks Panic. Ill give it a try.