Active strut "bandaide" needed

[Jehangir]

So the front boots on my actuators are ripped. The struts themselves are fine for now but I am concerned if I don't take care of this now then it will haunt me later. I went to dealership and they want $600 just for labor. Although the boots are only $60 without Joe's discount. I don't think I will be able to do this job myself, so I need a Cheap temperary fix to protect my struts....

[3Q Jay]

J- if you don't think you can tackle it yourself [Green just did it]--suggest you call Keith--he's only a couple hours drive from cajun country. I'm sure he'd be less than $600 to replace those the right way, and could give your system a professional lookover.

[tkd_q45]

Jay - how long / how hard is this? Keith tells me that it's not that much fun. I need to do the same. In fact I have my boots in the trunk of my car right now. Any special tools needed? I heard in another post that you need a breaker bar (or pry bar?). I have the former but not the latter.

I've been following the GreenQ45a thread as well. Just curious to see if you have any other learnings you'd like to pass along that you may not have shared yet.

zerothread?id=137105

[GreenQ45a]

I will post my Write-up to night with LOTS of pics...

LOTS of PICS...

I just didn't want to do a post for every pic...

[3Q Jay]

Tom, i've not done this job, just resarched it. we'll see green's writeup which should shed a lot of light. i remeber your right rear boot was torn since that's where we were working--didn't know the fronts were torn too.

unless i'm way off, the rears look very easy, while the fronts seem a bit more challenging.

[texasoil]

It's messy (oil from the active connections drools everywhere-gotta clese em off), and compressing the springs to disassemble the struts is a big PITA and dangerous. R&R of the struts themselves is no big deal if you have air/power ratchets. Disassembly of the front struts is not obvious--be sure you KNOW how to do it right on you WILL break things. Not a BAD job like valve cover gaskets, just not fun. Figure on spending best part of a Saturday on it start-to-finish--clean-up and test drive included. Deserve a 6-pack when done. BE CAREFUL with the springs when compressed--EXTREMELY DANGEROUS--will take your head, hand, arm, leg off instantly if it comes loose. Wish I had one of those shop type air/hydraulic gizmos that does it in 2 sec's. seems like lots of minutes for my air ratchet to run the nuts down then up for each spring. I put a proof coil chain inside and around the spring to 'contain it' if it got loose as I took it off and set it down so I could 'feel safe' leaving it compressed while I did my thing on the strut.