New shock absorber cushions

At Michel’s insistence, I decided to change this suspension component as well. I already have virtually all the components from the front suspension removed, so replacing these cushions shouldn’t be too onerous.

After buying the suspension strut storages, I noticed that the shock absorber bearings from the FEBI kit are different from the factory ones, so I did a little research on the Internet – in the following post I presented everything I could find.

To begin with, the list of parts needed:

Suspension strut storage 1J0412331C

FEBI F09228

6R0412249 – deep groove ball thrust bearng

Shock absorbers in the Polo 6R have bearings with an additional “flange”. Admittedly, it is possible to put on ordinary ones, as from a Golf 4, but then a small gap will remain between the bearing and the plastic from the shock absorber, which will allow dirt to accumulate right next to the bearing.

The factory shock absorber bearings are made by Rollax Germany. Apart from this manufacturer, only Lemforder makes bearings with perfect shape. The rest like FEBI, INA, etc. make them without this plastic “ring”.

1H0412365A – threaded bush M14X1,50 

wrench: 21 mm
tightening torque: 60 Nm

2 * 1H0412365A – nut over shock absorber cushion

N90353604 – hexagon nut, self-locking M14X1,50 

wrench: 21 mm
tightening torque: 60 Nm

2 * N90353604 – nut for attaching the shock absorber to the car body

If you have a threaded suspension, this can easily be replaced without any additional spring pullers etc. With standard suspension, in order to do this safely and according to the art, it is best to get a MacPherson column puller kit, such as something like this:

In my case, all I had to do was loosen the height adjustment and then unscrew the nuts.

Thanks to the help of Piotr from PK Coilovers I was able to unscrew everything smoothly with a regular impact spanner, an adjustable pipe spanner and a piece of inner tube 🙂