Dynamic Chassis Control Retrofit

I had been told I can potentially replace shocks by myself but I never did it before and I don't want to buy the spring compression clamps for one use only. I can do basic service on the car, like oil, filters and brakes, but for heavier jobs I prefer to go to a garage.

after replacing shocks you need to go for wheel alignment anyway. I also hope the A5 camera won't bitch about calibration. I am not replacing springs so I assume the height of the car won't be any different.

A5 is fine without calibration but if it’s off too much, driving with the lane assist enabled is very bad.

I intend to replace also the dog bones on the front as I need to take them out anyway.

Edit :

Rear struts obtained as well. Same seller had them on sale as well.

Best part is that both front and rear struts are from exact same type of car I have. 2017 Tiguan DSG with DFHA engine. And all struts are complete with bushes and fronts with springs and bearings. Car has been driven less than 7000km so parts are almost new.

And the price, less than 600€ for everything.

darkchina811 said:

after replacing shocks you need to go for wheel alignment anyway. I also hope the A5 camera won't bitch about calibration. I am not replacing springs so I assume the height of the car won't be any different.

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For this one. Why do you say you need wheel alignment? Basically you don’t IF you use the same springs. If you don’t lower the car, the alignment should stay exactly the same.
I had front struts replaced to our Leon and there was no need for wheel alignment after that as there was no difference.

I have had several people telling me to go for wheel alignment after replacing shocks, including the guy that will do the job. I guess I will follow these many opinions versus one

darkchina811 said:

I have had several people telling me to go for wheel alignment after replacing shocks, including the guy that will do the job. I guess I will follow these many opinions versus one

Click to expand...

I agree with this.

-Uwe-

darkchina811 said:

I have had several people telling me to go for wheel alignment after replacing shocks, including the guy that will do the job. I guess I will follow these many opinions versus one

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Ensure it's proper 4 wheel alignment and not just tracking. It costs more but full geometry is checked and adjusted if necessary.

darkchina811 said:

I have had several people telling me to go for wheel alignment after replacing shocks, including the guy that will do the job. I guess I will follow these many opinions versus one

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Yes I understand that but why? The geometry does not change unless you change the height or angle. And that's a fact, not a matter of opinion.

Geometry alignment is naturally always required IF you install lowering springs thus changing the wheel geometry. Installing EXACT same springs and struts does not change the geometry thus not needing a wheel alignment.

Again. Official workshop changed the struts on our other car and they said no geometry alignment is needed as same parts installed. No change in those. Steering wheel was still straight when I got the car and when changing to winter tyres I checked the summer ones and no uneven wear visible.

On our previous wifeys car, I changed lowering springs and that needed re-alignment. The alignment was way and that was also proven by the measurement report.

So please, show me the facts why? Until you or anyone else does, this wheel alignment requirement is just an opinion among others.

Edit :

Official workshop repair guide neither tells you to do wheel geometry alignment after spring or strut replacement.

What was the saying about opinions and assholes? Ouh yes, everyone's got one

bad news. the front shocks don't fit into the wheel bearing housing. after a deeper search with PL24 I determined that a DCC-factory equipped car has a different bearing housing, the bearing is 85mm instead of 80mm and the piece is aluminum VS cast iron. of course if replacing the housing, then the wheel bearing has to be replaced too.

I am looking into options now. the housing+bearing assemblies (left/right) have a decent price on the used market, but now I need to understand if other parts need to be replaced, like track control arm or guide joints.

had I know this from the start, I would have abandoned the project. now that I have everything installed but the shocks, it's almost mandatory to finish it... we'll see. I leave for work in one week and I'll be back in May. will probably postpone everything to the summer.

DAMN.

darkchina811 said:

bad news. the front shocks don't fit into the wheel bearing housing. after a deeper search with PL24 I determined that a DCC-factory equipped car has a different bearing housing, the bearing is 85mm instead of 80mm and the piece is aluminum VS cast iron. of course if replacing the housing, then the wheel bearing has to be replaced too.

I am looking into options now. the housing+bearing assemblies (left/right) have a decent price on the used market, but now I need to understand if other parts need to be replaced, like track control arm or guide joints.

had I know this from the start, I would have abandoned the project. now that I have everything installed but the shocks, it's almost mandatory to finish it... we'll see. I leave for work in one week and I'll be back in May. will probably postpone everything to the summer.

DAMN.

Click to expand...

Damn you scared me According to ETKA this depends on the front brake disc size rather than if the car has DCC or not.

On Golf there's 2 different sizes.

5Q0 407 255 N (left) 5Q0 407 256 N (right) 80mm base size and is for disc brake PR code 1ZF
5Q0 407 255 Q and 5Q0 407 256 Q, 80mm base size and this is for disc brakes with PR codes 1ZE and 1ZP

5Q0 407 253 A and 5Q0 407 254 A 85mm base size and this is the same one as in DCC cars. Disc brake PR codes 1LV, 1ZA, 1ZB and 1ZD

To make things ever worse, it looks like you need to upgrade your front disc brakes as well if you change the wheel bearing housing. The brake saddle is fixed to the housing and the fixing is different for different size disc brakes.
GTI, GTD and GTE already have correct size housing as they have bigger front disc brakes as well.

And what is also different between dcc and non dcc shocks is the rubber stop for shock absorber. Those you cannot move from your old struts.

I actually upgraded the brake discs this morning, at least we completed one of the two jobs. 288 mm to 312 mm discs, with new caliper carriers.

5Q0 407 253 A and 5Q0 407 254 A are what I need, but those two will dictate the new bearings as well, because now I have 80 mm.

I need to look into the rubber stop.

I am now looking into recoding the ABS because of new discs, I am checking with the excel file provided by Somnus and I am a little confused. it's byte 4 and byte 17 should be the inverse. as of now I have the same value of 24 into both, so I am not following this "inverse" thing. should I put 34 in both?

It means the byte 17 is mirror to what byte 4 is.

So 24 is 00011000 in binary. If you mirror it it's still the same and that makes it 24 in decimal also in inverse byte. But for example 34 would be 00100010 and mirrored/inversed is 01000100 which makes it 68 decimal. In ABS coding there's checksum bytes. So whenever you change the other byte, you need to change the other to match it otherwise the coding is not accepted.

thanks for the explanation, so I put hex 34 in byte 4 and hex 44 (dec 68) in byte 17?

Yes, exactly.

I tried 3 combinations: 34/44, 34/34 and 34/24. I always get ERROR 31 REQUEST OUT OF RANGE...

Can you put your current ABS coding here? I'll take a look.

And what's the PR code of the front brakes you've fitted? 1ZA, 1ZE or 1L/1LG/1LJ?

1ZA is the PR, 312mm disc size.

ok, for PR code 1ZA byte 4 = 34 hex, byte 17 = 2C hex
PR code 1LD/1LG/1LJ, byte 4 = 54 hex, byte 17 = 2A hex