Changing rear shock absorbers on Volkswagen Polo IV

The exercise will be done on the right rear wheel (passenger) and will be identical for the other side. Place the jack at the indicated location and put it in contact

Opposite the work area, i.e. the left front wheel (driver), place a wheel chock

Use the appropriate hook to remove the protective caps (present in the trunk in the manufacturer's equipment required for changing a wheel)

If you have anti-theft bolts use the appropriate socket.

Loosen all wheel bolts about 1/8 turn

Raise the vehicle, place a jack stand next to the jack, then lower the vehicle so that the jack stand takes the load and not the jack.

Remove the wheel and place it under the vehicle, and yes, safety cannot be neglected and you can never be too careful!

The shock absorber is the "tube" running from top to bottom of the frame. It is attached to the chassis by the two screws at the top of the frame

And to the rear axle by a screw-nut assembly

First loosen the axle bolt-nut assembly using a 16mm ratchet and ring spanner.

Remove the screw and detach the shock absorber from its housing

Loosen the chassis mounting screws using a ratchet wrench, an extension and a 16mm socket and remove the shock absorber.

The shock absorber is screwed to its aluminum support + stop/protective cover, we will have to disassemble this support to reassemble them on the new shock absorber

The shock absorber rod is fixed to the support by a self-locking nut. This rod has no retainer and is free to rotate. This is why in order to prevent the rotation of the rod during loosening it must be blocked, to do this use a 6mm flat wrench (or an English wrench)

Since it's not easy to hold 3 things at the same time you can hold the aluminum support in a vice... or... between your feet works pretty well too!

Clean the aluminum stopper as well as the foam one. If the latter is too crumbled or broken, replace it. In my case everything was still good

Since the shock absorber body and the protective plastic are in contact, it is best to put a little grease between these two elements. This will prevent the elastic stop from tearing off and will reinforce the seal between the two elements.

Replace the bracket on the shock absorber by renewing the nut (supplied with the new shock absorbers). Use the 6 and 16mm wrench as when disassembling

Once the rod is tightened hard enough (not too much) it will no longer turn thanks to the tightening, you can therefore tighten to a torque of 25Nm

Don't forget the little protective hat

Replace the shock absorber in its housing (chassis and rear axle) and place the screws/nuts. Renewing them is a plus but is not mandatory if they are in good condition

Tighten the screws to the chassis. On this point I do not agree with the VW documentation, they recommend a tightening torque of 30Nm + 90° but applying this tightening would be much too tight! So apply a tightening torque of 30Nm + a slight blow in addition (approximately 20°)

Tighten the screw-nut assembly at the rear axle. Same as the previous point, VW recommends a tightening torque of 40Nm + 90° or applying this tightening would be much too tight! So apply a tightening torque of 40Nm + a slight extra blow (approximately 20° to 30°)

Replace the wheel and tighten the bolts to contact.

Remove the jack, the candle and tighten the bolts to a torque of 120Nm

Replace the protective caps