Tools:
floor jack and stands
offset wrenches
Breaker Bar
Torque wrench
Impact gun
Hex heads
ratchet
impact gun
spring compressor
WD-40 (THIS IS A MUST)
lots of time and a few friends to help
1. jack up the car and get stands on all 4 corners
take off the wheels
*you can spray some WD-40 on the bolts that hold the bolts together*
2.start removing all the old suspension
I started with the rear because it was the easier part to work on. Use the floor jack and jack up on the spring bucket without compressing the spring. Then loosen the the spring bucket nut that holds the bucket to the hub. Once that is loose remove the nut. Try pulling the bolt out, if it doesn't come out smoothly try jacking up and down on the spring bucket until the bot can slide out with ease. Once the bolt is out slowly release the jack and let the spring bucket down. The spring will lose all the tension however, the bucket will not swing all the way down. To allow the bucket to swing down you need to loosen the toe bolt on the other side of the spring bucket. Once that bolt is loose the bucket will swing freely. Take out the spring. Now moving to the damper or shock, there are three bolts holding the shock in place. There is one large bolt on the bottom and two small nuts holding the top hat. Remove the large bolt on the bottom and then move on to the two nuts on top.
once the shock is out, try getting the top hat off. I used a set of pliers and a 14mm offset wrench. The top of the shock has a small tab, use the pliers to grab on that. Place the wrench on the the nut and try to loosen the nut.... you can do this by hand since the nut is only tightened to 22ft-lb. Now that the top hat is off with all its parts reassemble the shocks with the coilovers. MAKE SURE TO REUSE EVERYTHING. Put everything back in the reverse order and make sure to tighten them down using the correct torque specs. Use the jack to jack up on the spring.
3. moving to the front
This was the hard part for me. I put the floor jack under the control arm to hold it down and loosened the single nut that holds the shock in place. Once the bolt is out you need to disconnect the sway bar to allow some movement. Remove the top three bolts. Now that those are off the shock could come out, but I had to remove the bolts to the camber arms. Now that the shock is out its time to get the top hat off. That took a lot of time. Use the spring compressor and compress the spring. I had one of the large ones not the small two piece ones. Once the spring is compressed and can no longer give you a bloody nose, try to get the top hat off. I had to use an impact on it to get it loose but once it is loose just take time and use the pliers and the offset wrench to get it off. then PUT IT all back together.
Once that is all done the adjustment is what took even longer for me because I didn't have a full on machine shop jack. So it was remove the jack stands and everything for about 10 times before I could get the height right.
after all that work its time for an alignment.
REVIEW: my set is the same as the KW V1.
The ride is stiffer for sure. But I like the way this rides on the open highway... it doesn't bounce around like it used to. So far I have noticed that the turn in is very similar to stock but mid corner it is neutral instead of understeer. One thing I like is that the car is more predictable now, because back then had a hard time telling if the car was going to bite me. Now I can drive it closer to the limit.
