General Fiat 500 front shock

[plasma99]

The top hat bump stop is only there to stop the front strut falling out when the weight of the car is off its wheels.

Providing you are sensible, you should be just fine. You could even drive to a place of repair (or the local parts factor) with the top hat missing completely.

An option worth considering if you're going to DIY this is to replace the strut, spring & top mount complete. That way, you can cut the top hat off if you need to, and you won't have to undo anything corroded other than the lower strut attachment. It might actually cost less to buy the remaining parts than pay the labour charge at a garage. I'd also change the droplinks when you're there, as they're cheap, and you'll likely have to cut them off the strut anyway.

IIRC GSF sell front springs for under £20.

It’s the bits that go with the spring though. Everything underneath the nut that wouldn’t shift. I guess that will push the cost up somewhat.

 

[John202020]

Been there, posted a guide.
I had new springs so I cut the spring off in sections with the help of the compressors then I could remove a the bits of spring then cut the shock rod(hardened) now you can grind flats onto it so you can put it in a vice, simple from here

Front shock absorber replacement

I had to replace our 2009 front shocks due to corrosion, this is how I did it, hopefully if you do this it will help you? What you may require, normal DIY workshop tools including odds and evens in spanners and sockets. Shock absorbers, drop...

www.fiatforum.com

 

[d4zzl3r]

Slight leakage = pass
Severe leakage = fail
Shock absorber not working = fail

Is that slight leakage, severe leakage, or somewhere in between? Obviously there is some element of discretion and the tester is supposed to use his judgement.

I'd say last year you were given the benefit of the doubt.

If you've left it for a year, done nothing and presented it for test with this much seepage, my view is that it would be a fail, and deservedly so. And as has already been said, if it's lost its damping effect, it's a definite fail.

Failing dampers, do they get softer (floppy) or harder (more dampy)?

 

[jrkitching]

Failing dampers, do they get softer (floppy) or harder (more dampy)?

Almost always they just progressively lose their damping action, so if you bounce that corner of the car, it'll oscillate, rather than just coming to a stop.

Once removed from the car, they're just limp and lifeless; a new one should have considerable resistance to being compressed.

 

[steveras57]

Blown seals = oil mist/ coating! = no compression resistance = floppy = bangs and crashes all over the place!