I've acquired a doblo recently, a 2004 1.9 JTD five seater, from a main VW dealer, where it was sold to me at approved used level. So the dealer is still trying to sort out one of the problems i reported not long after getting the vehicle. That the doblo is leaning over to the drivers side.

Four weeks on and some visits replaced the driver side, spring and then the damper, made no difference to the cars leaning to one side.

The mechanic thinks that the previous owners garage could have fitted the wrong type damper to the other side, making it too high on the passenger side. So the car is booked in to replace the spring and damper on the passenger side as well, which will be making that the whole lot replaced.

Thought i would mention this here, see if anybody is familair with this. Could there be something else aside from spring and damper to cause this ?

Hi, and welcome,
On level ground check height with a tape measure, from the wheel arch center lip to the floor

The measurement should be within a few mm,on the front and the same with the rear,

The measurement between the front and rears may differ,

The front on my doblo are 650mm, and 710mm on the rear,

The measurements will vary on all doblos, depending on fuel and what junk (like mine) your carrying and where it is placed,

It could be any number of reasons weak springs, one collapsed spring, bent spring, worn rubber bushes on mountings,bump stop missing or worn,
A good mechanic should be able to sort it out for you using their noddle,
Look official, by carrying a tape measure he he,
And push down on all corners to check how much bounce you get, that should convince them!!!!!!

crinklebender said:

The mechanic thinks that the previous owners garage could have fitted the wrong type damper to the other side, making it too high on the passenger side. So the car is booked in to replace the spring and damper on the passenger side as well, which will be making that the whole lot replaced.

Thought i would mention this here, see if anybody is familair with this. Could there be something else aside from spring and damper to cause this ?

Click to expand...

hi,

we had this similar problem over here in singapore.
especially with the jtd versions

as we have only one "authorised dealer" here.
all the sale and warrenty goes thru them.

same story as yours .the driver side tend to be lower,
for those owners whom are more observant the leaning had start from 3cm
by the time the problem become so obvious, the "worse case" encountered 9cm


as we have a 3 year 100k ( km) warrenty . and the issue start poping out after 20k, 30k , 1year of so

credit must be given to our dealers,whom have tried changing the new dampers (front /rear) till thw front spring ,
it works but only for a few months or 20000 km , then we're back to square one.

personally i had 2 set of front rear orginal fiat absorbers(sach) changed at 30k and 50k .
so far i notice running on 17 inch only cause the absorber on the driver side to wear faster.

now i'm on my 3rd set of absorber
gave up with dealer, and also out of warrenty.
3 years 1 month, 90k
it's a monroe orginal for front and monroe ride leveler for rear.
bascially the monroe absorber seems to be firmer,
but let's see how long can it last.



basically the dealers had feedback this issue to fiat hq abt 2 years back,
till now there is no solution.


owners from our local doblo forum fiat.sg/forum more or less concluded.
being an Italian design , then converted to a right hand drive for uk and commonwealth countries ,

the weight distribution might have cause the problem of premature wearing of the right side absorbers.

we also notice the engine block is seated more towards the right , perhaps design to counter the driver's weight in left hand drive version .

we compared a few doblo and also noticed the leaning is especially obvious and appear on rides that are driven hard thru the corners by the owners

the wearing out of rear rubber wick/bump stopper , can also contribute to the leaning

for the newer doblo running on 1.3 mutijet, 1.9 multihet and 1.9D owners , the problems occur lesser ,
we suspect it might be due to a lighter engine block ..
and a improved rear rubber wick/bumper stopper compared to the earlier doblo

drivers whom without a passenger (more than half the time)
& whom weight more than 80kg tends to have this problem earlier

80% of singaporean lived in flats (apartments)
more than 50% of such housing have multi story carparks.
so an average singapore doblo does a lot more right turn at the slopes
this might also led to the premature wear of the right absorber

hope the above information helps

Thanks for replies, i'll pass this on to dealer.

I will give them a summary, that the weight distribution of the engine block in the doblo is not suited for right hand drive, and causes premature wear of all steering components on that side.

The dealer has already replaced the spring and shock on the drivers side, and it still leans at the front.

The shock was worn out, which is consistent with what you say. Its more likely then that the car is still leaning due to another worn component on the driver side.

Took the singapore report in the dealer. They kind of wanted to conclude from that, that the engine was one-sided, but like automatons, still went on insisting their theory that the other side had the wrong shock aborber and was too high.

I thought well if they want to give me all new springs and shocks at the front on their bill, then i'm not complaining. I also go to see an expensive process of elimination in action costing them, so am slightly less suspicious that they are at it, when they do things that way.

They called back. "yes we fitted shocker and spring, car is still leaning..from looking at the singapore report, our manager thinks its a characteristic of the one sided engine, and unless you experience a driving problem use the car as it is".

Tell them that the other side is TO HIGH
Seriously shocks should be changed in Pairs !
It is Standard practice really, And is the recommended course of action,
I can't really see a manufacturer compensating for road camber

agreed , shocks absorbers should ALWAYS be changed in pairs.



for my 2nd set of free replacement, only driver side was replaced.
and the rubber mount for the absorber happened to have a part upgraded , ( beach instead of orange used by the passenger side)

after some time, the passenger side started to make creaking noise especially over bumps.

when the shocks were removed, the mount were nearly gone

crinklebender said:

our manager thinks its a characteristic of the one sided engine, and unless you experience a driving problem use the car as it is".

Click to expand...

sad but true
this is what i'm doing ...
trying to live with it..

anyway, later in the year i'll be changing to blistern B4 for the front.
let's see any improvement over the monroe "orginal" absorbers

Could sort the leaning out by the traditional method, A bag of cement in the N/S footwell:worship:!!!!!
A set of drive on weight scales that the Ministry inspectors used would give a reading for individual wheel loadings,

( My other half won't let me use the bathroom scales we have in the house)

well it has a pair of new shocks and springs at the front. It didnt solve the problem, at all, but the doblo feels solid like a new vehicle.

If i figured out the weight difference I could always get my imaginary girlfriend to put on a couple of stone, and ask her to be my passenger more often.

POTTYPETE said:

:
I can't really see a manufacturer compensating for road camber

Click to expand...

Oddly enough Land Rover used to do exactly that. As they were generally driven solo, the offside springs were slightly higher!

crinklebender said:

well it has a pair of new shocks and springs at the front. It didnt solve the problem, at all, but the doblo feels solid like a new vehicle.

If i figured out the weight difference I could always get my imaginary girlfriend to put on a couple of stone, and ask her to be my passenger more often.

Click to expand...

hi.
any update of the leaning issue after all these months ?

Seems ok now. no problems with new shock absorbers yet.