So my rear suspension has felt ‘odd’ for a few weeks. It has also started a rattle occasionally – I put down to the ‘spray guard’ on the brakes, the other side rusted off last year.
Today, cleaning the car I noticed that the foam ‘bump stop'(?) on the shock absorber looks goosed, and the rattle is that ring hanging off:

IMAG0413 by matt_outandabout, on Flickr
I presume I can replace that foamy bump stop bit, but would it be an idea to change the rear shocks as well…?
We have been carrying some very heavy loads on the car this year (canoes, 4 bikes on rear rack + 5 of us on hols, moving house etc…)

The foam piece is a bottom out bump stop, to prevent damage to the shock/chasis

Easy to replace, expect to pay £20-£30 for a set (one for each side of the car)

Replace the rear shocks might be an idea. How old is the car ? What milage has it done ? Most of the time a shock that’s done 100K + will be soft. It still works it’s just soft.

Piece of cake to replace on the Touran though, a garage shouldn’t charge more than an hours labour to do both sides. It’s independant of the spring so it’s a case of using an airgun to undo two bolts and its off.

You would have to take the shock off to replace the bump stop so probably best to put a new shock on. They wouldn’t be expensive.

Snap!

Mine is exactly the same. If you’ve more then 80k on the clock I’d replace the rear shocks and fit new. GSF list the shocks and the bump stop.
VW procedure:
Remove wheel.
Remove coil spring.
Remove wing liner.
Remove shock.

Upper bolts = 50 Nm + 45 degrees (VW say use new bolts).
Lower mount = 180 Nm. No requirement to replace the bolt.

Hth
marko

Car has done 135k / 8 years. Mostly with 3 kids, 5 bikes, canoes, camping kit etc down bumpy, potholed singletrack road. I *think* it has survived well…
It is all the electrical wobbles that are now rearing head – just replaced the horn, now finding out if rear windscreen wiper is just a new motor, but now and again all the brake related electrics ‘stop’ and it has an electronic wibble for a few moments…

Mark – I can see upper bolts, and don’t think I need to get spring off, as it is separate unit.

Thinking about it, I’ve no idea why VW would want you to remove the coil spring first.The info I provided was from VW.

What you need to do is support the trailing arm on a jack, remove the shock lower mount and then gently lower the arm. Now remove the spring – it will fall out from what I remember. If you just undo the lower mount the spring will fly out potentially damaging you or the vehicle.

Btw both springs on mine had lost a small section from the bottom, so examine the springs. With 135K on the clock I’d replace them anyway.

Hth
marko

Cheers.

I did ours on my dads drive way. It is a dead easy thing to do, vw say to take the spring out because it allows access to the bottom bolt of the shock, you can do without taking the spring off as I did but it’s a bit of a faff. Other than that it really is easy. Just make sure your dealer has the bump stops in!

I won’t be buying from the main stealer dealer!

So I have looked in to buying parts myself, unfortunately I also need a new socket set and beg/borrow/buy a jack or axle stands.
So out of curiosity I just called an independent garage and main dealer. Indy? £310
VW Dealer? £370.
Parts would cost me £100/£110 all in, so they are both charging £200 labour for a job that looks like a 30mins a side… 😯

I would think you’re woefully underestimating how long it will take.