V-Maxx Coilover Fitting Guide

2005 VW T5 Caravelle 2.5TDi, using fitting kit No. VW26

Tools you will need:

Time, patience and a bit of mechanical knowledge
Axle stands, trolley jack (ideally two but I didn’t) and wheel chocks
Spring Compressors (possibly, see later)
Torx and Spline drive sets
18mm and 21mm ring spanners
13mm, 18mm and 21mm sockets
Tommy bars and some wood chocks
Start with a cup of coffee, and a deep breath.

To explain, I have a reasonable mechanical knowledge, although nothing major. I know one end of
the spanner from another and am reasonable competent. I’m not an expert or professional by any
stretch of the imagination. This isn’t a difficult job, just make sure you take your time, take care, and
don’t leave anything ‘untightened’ at the end. A peer-check is always safe...

I started with the fronts, even though I knew they were harder, but wanted to get them out of the
way. A few days before I had jacked her up, whipped off the wheels and used penetrating oil spray
on everything that I thought I’d need to remove, and painted the callipers at the same time;

Front wheel - Drop link top bolt, stub-axle twin bolts at base of suspension unit and plenty
around the top of the stub-axle where the suspension shaft drops into it (you’ll understand why
later!).
Rear wheel - Shock absorber top and bottom mounts, rear anti-roll bar front mountings on
bottom wishbone.

The evening before I got the van propped up onto axle-stands, took wheels off and did the prep
work for the next day. First was the removal of the plastics and other covers in the engine bay, so
bonnet up!!

NEARSIDE -

Take battery cover off Remove rubber waterproofing strip

Remove two Torx bolts. The one I’m pointing to is easy to remove, the other can be accessed if you
use a screwdriver or something similar to gently prise the plastic trim backwards. Black metal sheet
can then be removed.

With the metal plate removed you can now see the rubber bung which just pulls off with finger
pressure. This exposes the top bolt which holds the top of the strut in place (Don’t undo it yet!)

OFFSIDE –

Offside cover with same Torx fittings as nearside. They can be removed without removing airbox,
but I took the top airbox cover off to make access easier for later.
Again, rubber cover and strut top bolt...
The above took about an hour or so. Went to bed, and woke next morning to do the big job...
Gently pull out the brake and other lines and try to keep them out of the way (!). Started off with the
drop-link bolts. You will need an 18mm ring spanner and one of your spline drives (NOT TORX). Put
the spline drive in and hold it still while you undo outer bolt with spanner. To make it easier for me I
used the solidity of the stub axle to ‘wedge’ the spline socket against it allowing me a free pair of
hands to tug on the spanner (hopefully this makes sense!)

Spline drive socket goes in here Moved out of way

Wrench ‘wedged’ against stub-axle

Once you have undone the drop-link, you can gently move it out of the way and move onto the big
boys. Undoing the stub axle bolts was a bitch. Simple-as. They are 21mm bolt heads and to get
enough purchase I used my torque wrench (Cue some shoulder strain). I ensured that I kept spraying
them with lube as I went, and I’m glad I did because they were filthy once removed. Once out I
cleaned them with a wire brush to make them easier and safer to refit.
Well-lubed (and they need to be!!!) You will now need to get a bit ‘medieval’ on the stub axle. It
needs to be dropped off the bottom of the suspension strut. I found that it took a little while but
‘softly, softly, catchee monkey’. I used a lump hammer and some wooden blocks to gently beat the
shit out of it. This is why you need to leave the strut attached at the top of the wheel arch, cos you’ll
never get the stub off otherwise. I also put a couple of wood blocks under the brake disc just in case
it popped out and I didn’t want the driveshaft to pull out.
After what seemed like an eternity, the strut came free at the bottom, I was then able to undo the
top bolt whilst the strut rested on the stub. I could then pull the whole strut free (heavy and a bit
awkward mind, so watch your back).
Then left with a hole in the top of your wheel arch...

I gave this area a clean (loads of grit)

Laid the strut on the garage floor to remove the ‘top hat’ components. I have got some coil spring
compressors but didn’t require them. At the top of the strut there is a 21mm nut with a threaded
section that forms part of the damper. This has a Torx hole in the end and you will need to do a
similar thing as you did with the droplinks (ie. Hold Torx threaded bit still and undo the 21mm bolt. It
was very tight but used the garage floor as ‘wedge’ again, and stood on strut.

NOW IT MAY BE THAT BECAUSE MY VAN IS A CARAVELLE WITH SHORTER SPRINGS THAN A VAN,
THAT I DIDN’T NEED THE SPRING COMPRESSORS. YOU WILL NEED TO CHECK THIS YOURSELF AND BE
CARFEUL, THEM SPRINGS CAN BITE.......!!

I was able to fully undo the 21mm nut and the coil spring totally unloaded about 10mm before the
end of the thread. Result!!
I was then able to remove the three top-hat bits that you will need to fit to your V-Maxx strut.

Top hat bits Make sure you fit the new red spring correctly!

The bits slide straight on and locate nicely into the top of the new spring (must admit it looks well-
puny against the original one!
This will be where you’ll need to adjust you settings using the crappy ‘c’ spanner in the box. I set my
damping to minimum and measured about 20mm and set up the blue collets to leave this amount of
thread at the bottom (All down to personal preference though). I used the original VW bolts as they
were the same thread, rather than use the little thing from V-Maxx. Don’t put the top damping
adjuster on yet!
Then simply do the reverse of removal, I ensured that I cleaned up the stub axle ‘hole’ to make re-
insertion as easy as possible. Got it in there straight put the top bolt on to hold and then fitted to
stub. It was still a bitch to fit, and you need to make sure that the rear vertical bracket goes between
the stub-axle bolts.

I used a trolley jack under the wishbone and ‘gently’ applied upwards pressure which helped to slot
the strut back in. I also found that opening up the strut helped, and I used a good old claw hammer
in the gap at the back of the stub axle where the bolts tighten to prise it open. Just ensure that it
fully seats down to the base of the stub-axle before you start tightening it all back up again. It will
need to poke out bottom of stub axle to the little metal lip.

Refit the drop-link and tighten accordingly, refit the cables and double-check you’ve done everything
up properly. Now you can put the top damping adjuster on from inside the bonnet. The rubber caps
can be discarded as you won’t need them again.
ALL FITTED AND LOOKING SAUCY!!!
Wheels back on, off axle stands and this was the drop. Looked a bit like a dragster with the rear still
‘jacked-up’....!

Took about three hours in total for the front, now time for a second cup of coffee....
TIME FOR THE REARS (Much easier to both do and get to).
I was only able to do one side at a time as I only had one trolley jack, if you got two will be even
better.
Right, so get back wheel off and undo the lower damper bolt, 21mm again and mine were right
bitches. Resorted to the torque wrench and wedging again, but this time used the ground. You have
to keep the bolt still while you undo the nut. Loadsa penetrating oil again will help. Once this is
removed the wishbone will drop a bit but not enough to get spring out. I undid the anti rollbar on
each side and this allowed a further 6” of drop (These are 13mm bolts). The coil spring then comes
out easily. The top damper bolt is 18mm and easier to undo than the lower bolt. There is only one
side as the nut side of it is obviously fixed to the chassis. Pop damper off and if they were like mine
(leaky) discard.

Wishbone Ash (!) Anti-roll bar bracket removed. Easy job.

Damper top bolt Damper bottom bolt ready to be rejoined

The blue collar for the rears I measured at 35mm purely as a guess, which you can see in one of the
following photographs. You will need to grind or file down four little nibs on the tube which drops
from the chassis. I just used an ordinary metalworking file as there’s hardly anything to remove.

35mm

Nibs removed Collar and spring fitted

You will need to use the rubber base from the original spring for the new one. Then just carry out a
reversal of the removal procedure.

And all nicely finished...!

As I only have one trolley jack I used the VW car jack under the brake disc to gently lift it into
position for fitting the bolts as I went.

Refit the anti-rollbar, tighten everything back up, whack your wheels back on. Give everything a
whack with the torque wrench and hey presto, all done.

Now all you have to do is stand back and admire your work.....!
You can go lower if you like, but for day-to-day practicality I chose this set-up as described above.