Damage to suspension / struts?

[Pacman_GTI]

Hi everyone,

In recent weeks I've noticed a marked change in the handling of my GTI. The car doesn't feel as planted as it used to, with quite a lot of body roll in corners and movement under braking. I strongly suspect this issue was caused by an enormous pothole I hit on the A1 a few weeks back. At first, I thought the issue was wheel alignment - but I've now had that corrected and the problems persist.

I'm now starting to fear that there may have been damage to the suspension - from my Googling, it sounds a bit like a damaged strut (please do correct me if this sounds unlikely as my knowledge of these issues is purely derived from internet searches!).

Has anyone else had an issue like this? Is it expensive to have checked/repaired? Would you take it to the dealers or to an independent garage to be checked?

Cheers all

[RocketRossUK]

Hey up mate, Yeah you may have damaged some part of you suspension or arm. One of my mates did the same thing, he damaged where the suspension join the arm.

He took it to an indy and the price wasnt too bad to fix it.....I would alwas say take it to an Indy first...

[mkviken]

If you had geometry checked (properly on a hunters machine for example) and all was good then control arms and links etc should be fine.

If the strut has blown it would certainly ruin the handling and the best way to check is to look at where you usually park the car - are there any puddles of oil? Stick your head under the car and see if there are any wet patched on or around the struts to see if any fluid is leaked out.

Also it would pay to jack the car up and che I the prongs are in 1 piece still as a broken spring would cause bad handling but these are usually noisy so can be diagnosed that way too.

[Pacman_GTI]

Thanks for the replies. I haven't seen any oil puddles under the car. I think I'll have to take it to a VAG specialist to see if they can diagnose the fault. I just want my old GTI back!