loadinglevelone
Member
Funny story. Got the dreaded front knock on my 2016 T6 van today.
Was driving home from work when suddenly the car started having loud bangs and knocks on every small hole in the road. So I immediately pulled over, crawled under with a flashlight and inspected. Could not find anything wrong. Spring and suspension looked ok. Bushings looked or. Roll bar looked good. Wheel was on. Everything looked just normal. So in my horror I thought something really bad was wrong. Called the VW garage and limped my way there. 20 minutes drive, very slow drive. Knocks and bangs which could be felt through the floor all the way there. Even the smallest of bump in the road gave a loud bang.
Was lucky that the mechanic could look at it straight away. He took it for a test drive and could confirm the knocks. Back at the garage he lifted the car up. Inspected the front suspension, the bushings, the everything. Nothing. The front suspension was solid, everything was ok...
...until he looked in the lower spring seat. It was packed full with rocks and gravel, between the spring and spring seat. So much so that the entire weight of the van rested upon a pile of gravel. So, he took the load of the spring and cleaned it all out. Knocking gone.
The mechanic told me that gravel in the spring seat was a common problem on these vans, but he had never seen a case so bad as this one. Literally two handfuls of gravel jammed underneath the spring.
Was driving home from work when suddenly the car started having loud bangs and knocks on every small hole in the road. So I immediately pulled over, crawled under with a flashlight and inspected. Could not find anything wrong. Spring and suspension looked ok. Bushings looked or. Roll bar looked good. Wheel was on. Everything looked just normal. So in my horror I thought something really bad was wrong. Called the VW garage and limped my way there. 20 minutes drive, very slow drive. Knocks and bangs which could be felt through the floor all the way there. Even the smallest of bump in the road gave a loud bang.
Was lucky that the mechanic could look at it straight away. He took it for a test drive and could confirm the knocks. Back at the garage he lifted the car up. Inspected the front suspension, the bushings, the everything. Nothing. The front suspension was solid, everything was ok...
...until he looked in the lower spring seat. It was packed full with rocks and gravel, between the spring and spring seat. So much so that the entire weight of the van rested upon a pile of gravel. So, he took the load of the spring and cleaned it all out. Knocking gone.
The mechanic told me that gravel in the spring seat was a common problem on these vans, but he had never seen a case so bad as this one. Literally two handfuls of gravel jammed underneath the spring.
Last edited:
