How Do I Know If My Rear Beam Needs Refurbishing?

[roohunt 1]

Trying to get my GTI in tip top shape before the summer as I want to use it a lot and hopefully get down to the alps in it too...

 

I'm a bit of a newbie though and i've seen a lot on here about rear beam refurbishment - So my question is how would I know if my rear beam needs a refurb or a replacement? Are there any tell tale signs when driving or just from looking at it? From underneath it looks pretty tidy but that's from about as amateur a viewpoint as possible.

[Anthony 1,002]

If you have no history of it ever having been done, then assume that it needs doing as pretty much all original beams will now be well past their best.

 

Symptoms that it's failed/failing include seizure, excessive negative camber, knocking, squeaking, or play between the trailing arm and tube.

 

By the time it's showing symptoms of failure then it's likely to be beyond economical repair, or at best will be considerably more expensive than if sorted well in advance of it showing failure symptoms.

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

As above especially if you are looking at getting the car in tip top condition it's not going to hurt as prevenative maintanence to have the suspension as good as it can be.

 

Not a cheap job, but if you don't do it now/at some point - then effectively you're more or less waiting for it to more or less obviously fail and potentially knacker a tube etc.

 

Look at it like a cambelt. Interval may be listed as X, but doesn't hurt to do it a bit before and you wouldn't wait for one of those to fail before changing it. Obviously an extreme comparison

Edited February 22, 2013 by chipstick

[roohunt 1]

Good advice fellas thank you