1996 Jetta ( Question about new Struts)

Very easy job to do yourself if you replace the whole assembly.

Then all you need are a couple of wrenches and a good jack.

Two bottom bolts, one top bolt and the whole assembly falls out.

Backs are almost as easy.

Once again this is if you buy the whole assembly pre assembled. You can get total new assemblies for less than $300 for the front and less than $200 for the rear.

You can get gas Sachs-Boge designed for GTIs for 4299 for the rears.

I have put these on several cars, real easy and real nice results.

>

You got 123k from the OEM's, it's a no brainer on what to get!

I assume you meant "if not possibly more soft".

Both Gabriel and Monroe are relatively "brand names" and will probably give a soft ride. The OEM for your car is probably Boge/Sachs. Bilstein is not OEM although they make excellent dampers, most of which will be at least slightly stiffer than when the car was new, and significantly stiffer than now. It's hard to find a better quality damper than Bilstein though. I personally would get Bilstein HDs over Gabriel or Monroe, but then I prefer them to be a little a stiffer and I'm willing to pay for the quality. I believe Bilstein also makes something called "Touring" shocks which are supposed to resemble OEM and probably wouldn't be a bad choice for you. KYB GR-2 and Boge Progas are also reasonable options if you are trying to conserve money, although they are slightly stiffer than stock, they are far from unreasonable for most people. I'd trust either over Gabriel or Monroe.

That said, I'd also prefer to do the work myself. The struts are held in by one nut at the top and two bolts at the bottom. The rear shocks are held in by one nut at the top and one bolt at the bottom. The nut on the rear is a bit hard to get at (I used a socket and pair of vise grips), and the nut in front requires either an impact wrench or an O2 sensor socket. Other than that, its pretty straightforward. You'll also need a spring compressor for the fronts which you can get from Autozone or Harbor Freight. The thing is, you should probably also be replacing the strut/shock mounts at this point. It'll take a lot of the play out of it. It'll also give you the opportunity to more carefully examine your tie-rod ends and balljoints which are cheap and easy to replace and might not be a bad idea with that much mileage. With something like suspension or brakes, considering how easy it is to work on, its nice to know it was done right rather than by some high school kid who was just trying to get your car through as quick as possible (and don't kid yourself about who works for Sears/Les Schwab/ Midas/Quick-Lube chain/etc). I don't think that any of the "big chains" are really any better than any other one. I wouldn't trust any of them although their quality will probably vary significantly from one store to the next.

dan

Les Schwab wants $543.81 with Tax for all 4 installed with the 4 way alinement. They said they would be using Gabriel Gas Struts (gs2), i've call else where and they were plus or minus $50 of that. So I guess this is the soluton. As far as Woodchucks comment, VW told me to go else where. they said goto Sears so much for your no brainer.

-Lee

Doesn't sound like your VW dealer likes to work on VW's. I'm sure if their GM would tell the person who said "go elsewhere" to pack up and go elsewhere too!

Or they're taking the "too cheap to put up with" perspective on the customer. Just as bad, but not uncommon. They don't want to "bother" with customers that aren't willing to put up with the outrageous prices they gouge at the $tealership. Fortunately some dealers aren't that arrogant (but not many...)

I suspect there was more to that story.

nope they just said that it would be better for me to goto sears cause he don't stock the unit and it would cost me more. I dunno.. maybe i'll call another dealer in the seattle area.. one i was talking bout was university vw in seattle.

-LEe

Find another dealer to service your car. We get VW parts from VW in 2 days max. Not to mention it's a easy job for us old fart technicians.

Well, that's actually more honest that one might expect. Rather than make you wait and inevitably have it cost you MORE in the process they're giving it to you straight. I mean, what's worse for them, having a customer whine to others about how long it took to get it fixed and how expensive it was (checking after the fact with sears or pep boys) or suggesting another solution. Sounds uncharacteristically smart for a dealer...

Sounds too French for me. I wouldn't go to a place that says you need a

4 way alignment. I think your model only needs a front-end alignment. The rears would need to be shimmed if they were way out.

Woodchuck, here is a question for you. Does your dealership allow you to bring in customer parts or is this just a political thing? If the parts are not VW, they suck? It is so easy to sign a waiver so the dealer does not have to warranty the job if the job was proven well done and correct. There we go again on how the dealer makes overhead profit on the VW parts to compensate the labor rate. I still think this is bogus. There was a VW Porsche dealer in NJ that had the same labor rate for both. The Porsche rate. The other nicer family owned ex racer VW Porsche dealer had a $30 or so difference and they are in PA. I guess you have to live in NJ to afford that VW labor rate. :)

Our dealer has no problems installing customer supplied parts 99% of the time unless the part looks wierd. We call them generic parts which is no different from buying Ford, Chevy, etc parts from the local auto parts store.