all i could find were aftermarket upgrades and suggestions. no real help on whats involved in replacing the struts themselves with oem replacments.
i have the struts and the protective boot on order and should be here today....what else do i need?
thanks,
lbrowne
Whats involved with replacing front struts, with direct replacements? i've searched
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big jon's 240
- Posts: 509
- Joined: Mon Sep 30, 2002 5:14 am
- Car: uh....football, cars, and um, cars!
well i just replaced my two front struts yesterday... took me and my buddy 3 hours to do... SOO worth it though...
yes you do need to get a spring compressor, you can rent them from tool rental places, but I rented mine from Canadian Tire... you pay for the full cost of the tool up front, but then when you return it, they give you all your money back, so... FREE!
but other than that, you'll need a good ratchet set, a little grease, and two jacks is nice to have if you want to either jack up both sides at once, or to support the control arm with...
and another thing is, I bought KYB GR2 struts, but they didn't tell me that they didn't come with the rubber boots to go around the shock... the ones that were on my car were ripped to fuk so i had to buy new ones ($25 per boot, and that's discounted!)
but all said and done, it was well worth it... haven't done the rear's yet, so that's another story...
yes you do need to get a spring compressor, you can rent them from tool rental places, but I rented mine from Canadian Tire... you pay for the full cost of the tool up front, but then when you return it, they give you all your money back, so... FREE!
but other than that, you'll need a good ratchet set, a little grease, and two jacks is nice to have if you want to either jack up both sides at once, or to support the control arm with...
and another thing is, I bought KYB GR2 struts, but they didn't tell me that they didn't come with the rubber boots to go around the shock... the ones that were on my car were ripped to fuk so i had to buy new ones ($25 per boot, and that's discounted!)
but all said and done, it was well worth it... haven't done the rear's yet, so that's another story...
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96_S14_SE
- Posts: 973
- Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2002 11:10 am
- Car: 96 S14 SE - 05 VW GTI 1.8t - 89 S13 coupe "gold on brown"
Its really simple to do. As stated a rented spring compressor, a 14mm strut towers sway bar endlink (iirc poss 12mm too) 17 mm spindle to strut, breaker bar possibly, penetrant, and a torque wrench if you want will be needed, oh and a jack...
I spray all bolts to be removed prior to jacking. Then I remove the sway bar endlink, which really isnt needed but it takes some loaded stress off of the LCA > spindle witch eases removal and install of the strut. It will still have some downward pull to it with the sway bar endlinks attached while doing one side at a time.
Jack her up and remove the tire. Break the 2 spindle to strut bolts loose, and remove the strut tower bolts. Then disconnect the brake line bracket, and remove the strut / spindle bolts..... the unit should come right out.
Compress and remove the top strut retaining bolt, then slide all hardware off. Slide comepressed spring out and insert new strut, and put the harware back on exactly in the same place and position (important to keep the same posistion of the upper strut mounts in relation to the body / strut). Decompress and reinstall....
No biggie, I did the rears in the dirt (florida sugar sand woohoo) across the street from my house, because my drive way is at a 25 degree incline, in about 1 - 1.5 hrs by myself. The fronts took me many many hours to do as I needed to modify the struts to slide the Koni cartridges in, and the fact the last time the front spindle to strut bolts where put in, they where done so with an impact. I went through 2 3/8" drive wratchets a wrench twice (both ends sheared off) and wasted a 1/2" to 3/8" adapter while reverse using my rented torque wrench as a breaker bar. It sheared the 3/8" part clean off at 275 ft lbs and it took more then that still to remove it..... but it couldent use the Tq wrench as I had no 1/2" 17s hehe...
But once that was done it was easy.
edit: the strut tower nuts are supposeidly the replcement type. If you are a by the book guy, I thought i would let you know, but after removing mine who knows how many times (at least 10) they are still fine.
I spray all bolts to be removed prior to jacking. Then I remove the sway bar endlink, which really isnt needed but it takes some loaded stress off of the LCA > spindle witch eases removal and install of the strut. It will still have some downward pull to it with the sway bar endlinks attached while doing one side at a time.
Jack her up and remove the tire. Break the 2 spindle to strut bolts loose, and remove the strut tower bolts. Then disconnect the brake line bracket, and remove the strut / spindle bolts..... the unit should come right out.
Compress and remove the top strut retaining bolt, then slide all hardware off. Slide comepressed spring out and insert new strut, and put the harware back on exactly in the same place and position (important to keep the same posistion of the upper strut mounts in relation to the body / strut). Decompress and reinstall....
No biggie, I did the rears in the dirt (florida sugar sand woohoo) across the street from my house, because my drive way is at a 25 degree incline, in about 1 - 1.5 hrs by myself. The fronts took me many many hours to do as I needed to modify the struts to slide the Koni cartridges in, and the fact the last time the front spindle to strut bolts where put in, they where done so with an impact. I went through 2 3/8" drive wratchets a wrench twice (both ends sheared off) and wasted a 1/2" to 3/8" adapter while reverse using my rented torque wrench as a breaker bar. It sheared the 3/8" part clean off at 275 ft lbs and it took more then that still to remove it..... but it couldent use the Tq wrench as I had no 1/2" 17s hehe...
But once that was done it was easy.
edit: the strut tower nuts are supposeidly the replcement type. If you are a by the book guy, I thought i would let you know, but after removing mine who knows how many times (at least 10) they are still fine.