[Taylortony]

Hmmmm Worried now, mine the bump stop has perished and one split on the back ( TTS) Audi quoted me (sitting down) £1035 to replace the rear Bump stops, Halfords using genuine parts about £450 and my local VAG Specialist who have an excellent rep £200 I gave them the part numbers from the Audi quote and they ordered them from Audi, but i am wondering about the caps as well.

 

[SwissJetPilot]

@ Taylortony - "Bump stop" - are you referring to Item 2 shown here? From some previous posts, it may be possible to remove the connector cap (Item 3A) without breaking it despite what the workshop manual says. But I would print this out and discuss it with the shop that's offering to do the work just to be clear.

 

[Taylortony]

yes one is bad and the other is in two halves, but as it the mag ride ( 2012 ) you need the top covers I believe as you cannot remove them without destroying them.

 

[SwissJetPilot]

@ Taylortony - I seem to recall someone recently had their rear mag shock replaced and it didn't require a new cap. Let me see if I can find it and will link to it -

EDIT - Found it! Here's the post. If this shop is year you, it might be worth checking them out. According to Knight-tts they didn't need to replace his caps. Drop him a PM for details -

Magnetic ride rear shock part# confusion...
https://www.ttforum.co.uk/forum/viewtop ... &t=2010011

 

[Taylortony]

thanks, that might have come as a complete unit, to get the bumpstops out the cap has to come off to access the nut.

 

[SwissJetPilot]

@ Taylortony - Give him a shout and find out exactly what was involved. From the post, I got the impression the shop he used were able replace the shocks and still use the original caps. Audi probably snaps them off intentionally, but these guys may have figured a way to remove them without breaking them. You know Audi, any means to make a buck! :roll:

 

[Taylortony]

Will do, it is booked in on Friday, not contactable for messaging

 

[SwissJetPilot]

@ Taylortony - Will you be able to stick around at the shop when they do the work? It would be really interesting to see what's involved if at all possible. Maybe find out if they can remove and reuse the caps and if so, how they go about doing it.

Here's some pictures of the rear shock and the connector cap. Just looking at how this is put together and I notices a blue residue around the connector nut. I wonder if this is some sort of seal that when taken apart, is what gets destroyed since everything else looks like it should go back together.

Source: https://dertt.fotki.com/2008-audi-ttc/t ... page2.html

 

[Taylortony]

@ Taylortony - I seem to recall someone recently had their rear mag shock replaced and it didn't require a new cap. Let me see if I can find it and will link to it -

EDIT - Found it! Here's the post. If this shop is year you, it might be worth checking them out. According to Knight-tts they didn't need to replace his caps. Drop him a PM for details -

Magnetic ride rear shock part# confusion...
https://www.ttforum.co.uk/forum/viewtop ... &t=2010011

So for the rear shock replacement it cost him just over £600, the SAME firm quoted me JUST FOR REPLACING THE REAR BUMPSTOPS £1039
So if you take the £318 he was charged for the Shock off the bill that would be £282 per side or £560, now Mine is a TTS 2012 and his is a TTS 2011, mine on the model has a Q for Quatro, his does not and I am assuming his is the magnetic as well, so something stinks along the way in all of this.

I doubt I will get near with Covid etc.

 

[SwissJetPilot]

I found this Youtube for a TT Mk2 rear shock replacement (not Mag Ride unfortunately) but it clearly shows the new bump stop. Not sure if this is something you want to tackle yourself but at least it gives you an idea of what's involved. Sorry, it's in French, but you'll get the idea, n'est pas? 😉

Changer les coupelles et/ou amortisseurs arrière Audi TT MK2 8J
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZa8GKR ... A9oBouzige

Difference being you'll need this VAG tool T40129 in order to hold the piston rod in place while unscrewing the top nut -

 

[TT'sRevenge]

So for the rear shock replacement it cost him just over £600, the SAME firm quoted me JUST FOR REPLACING THE REAR BUMPSTOPS £1039
So if you take the £318 he was charged for the Shock off the bill that would be £282 per side or £560, now Mine is a TTS 2012 and his is a TTS 2011, mine on the model has a Q for Quatro, his does not and I am assuming his is the magnetic as well, so something stinks along the way in all of this.

All S and RS cars are quattro-equipped; also all R8s except that very limited edition RWD model. Also all Mk2 TT-S are magride equipped as standard (though this may vary depending on country); RSes as well but RS had the option for regular dampers.

Perhaps they are quoting you on both the shocks and the bump stops along with those darn caps lol. As to whether they can be removed w/o damaging I highly doubt it but I will find out myself sometime in May when I replace my rears. I have the shocks in hand now, just waiting on the caps (which cost me nearly $400 CAD as mentioned) but they have to be ordered from Germany and ETA is early May! I wonder, what the heck happens when they stop making those caps? I guess you'd be forced to delete the magride then :evil:

I'm perhaps one of the few going the route of retaining it and have intended to replace all four since I bought the car. The way I figured it was I bought a car with 185k kms on the clock and the magride will need replacing in a year or two tops. I could have bought a lesser miles car for thousands more, but then how long would the shocks/struts last before I'd eventually have to replace anyway? My thinking was buy cheap, replace on my own, and then be set for many years

I do need to seek out that tool though. It is expensive! Same [US] seller I got the cam adjuster bit from has it but it's like $50 USD plus $15 to ship and another $10 in import charges (because Canada :roll: ) so it'd cost me like $100+ (CAD) just for the too And that's about as cheap as I can get it. However I've found some generic shock-shaft holding tools that are similar for much less some which have three different diameters. If I can find one that has the right diameter, I might be in business. Another alternative is just using impact on that nut--that's what everyone does for regular shocks (even though the manufacturers all say not to, it works and no need to hold anything).

 

[Knight-tts]

@ Taylortony - I seem to recall someone recently had their rear mag shock replaced and it didn't require a new cap. Let me see if I can find it and will link to it -

EDIT - Found it! Here's the post. If this shop is year you, it might be worth checking them out. According to Knight-tts they didn't need to replace his caps. Drop him a PM for details -

Magnetic ride rear shock part# confusion...
https://www.ttforum.co.uk/forum/viewtop ... &t=2010011

So for the rear shock replacement it cost him just over £600, the SAME firm quoted me JUST FOR REPLACING THE REAR BUMPSTOPS £1039
So if you take the £318 he was charged for the Shock off the bill that would be £282 per side or £560, now Mine is a TTS 2012 and his is a TTS 2011, mine on the model has a Q for Quatro, his does not and I am assuming his is the magnetic as well, so something stinks along the way in all of this.

I doubt I will get near with Covid etc.

Bump stops for the rear are £19.37 each , how can they charge £1039

 

[SwissJetPilot]

@ TT'sRevenge - I've been digging through a few German Audi websites and so far no one else is having much luck with reusing those caps either. In the image of the piston rods, you can see the pins inside after the nut is removed. Not sure why a new cap would work and the original wouldn't. but maybe you can solve this mystery.

Before you take the cap off (if you're going to scrap it anyway) it might be interesting to cut half of it away to see exactly what it looks like inside. From the image from the workshop manual and the photos I posted earlier, it looks like there's some sort of internal seal (??) and when the cap is removed, that's what gets damaged beyond repair.

 

[Taylortony]

Spoke to the garage they said the caps are normally ok it's when people pull the strut down without easing them off you get problems as it wrecks the connector.

 

[Taylortony]

Spoke to the garage they said the caps are normally ok it's when people pull the strut down without easing them off you get problems as it wrecks the connector. That and them getting brittle with age.

 

[SwissJetPilot]

Okay, that makes sense. I've been trying to figure out the difference between and old one and a new one. The only clue there was something going on was the blue residue shown in the image below. Perhaps it's just some sort of silicon seal they use at the factory since there's no part number indicated for any additional sealing material as is the case with some other assemblies.

 

[Taylortony]

The nut might be a nylock, which has a plastic insert in that cuts a thread in itself as you tighten it to prevent it undoing.

 

[SwissJetPilot]

That makes sense!

 

[SwissJetPilot]

Just got a message back from my Audi Service guy -

According to the repair guide, these must be replaced as non-destructive dismantling is not possible. What breaks is not written. One cap is 94 Euro + Tax

So no help there on removing it without damage. I suspect none of the Audi techs have bothered to try not to damage one since they are only instructed to break it regardless. :?

 

[TT'sRevenge]

Just got a message back from my Audi Service guy -

According to the repair guide, these must be replaced as non-destructive dismantling is not possible. What breaks is not written. One cap is 94 Euro + Tax

So no help there on removing it without damage. I suspect none of the Audi techs have bothered to try not to damage one since they are only instructed to break it regardless. :?

It's possible that's what they're doing but I suspect it really isn't possible to reuse them. If you can I will surely be kicking myself though, lol. The cost of these really is ridiculous for what is effectively a disposable plastic part. The shocks sure as heck ain't cheap but I can justify the price of them given the tech involved--it's not exactly a traditional gas/oil damper. Granted they shouldn't be that pricey given one could get same-tech OE parts for GMs made by the same manufacturer, for much cheaper in some cases...them's still the breaks when you put four rings on it lol. And anyway I did get a good deal on my pair I have to admit.

But the caps which seem to amount to no more than an electrical connector and wires in a plastic housing, and are one-time use at that? The price is insane lol. Can't really justify it, just have to grin and bear it as a necessary thing in the design and a price Audi commands for it. The only thing I'd like to know is if Delphi/BWI didn't use these same caps on other makes of vehicles (like GMs) where they might be had for cheaper, but that would take some looking into to find out. Also a bit late since already ordered.

My caps are scheduled to ship on May 7th, from BC--the other side of the country as this is the dealer selling them the cheapest I could find, even after a shipping cost of $50. So maybe mid-May I'll get a chance to do the replacements. The rears are super easy to do since the spring is separated and you don't need to do any spring compression, etc. like you do with the McPhersons up front. If it's like the A3 the hardest part about the rear is getting the lower shock bolts out, though I have a high-torque impact now which will make short work out of it provided I can get it in there, hopefully with a universal. Mid-torque impact struggled to get that bolt out on one side on my A3, though it eventually broke it [loose] after several tries. I had a pretty tough time getting it in though, I think I dropped the control arm altogether to get clearance. The TT has a slightly different rear-end of course so I'll see how it works out.