So i have been reading all the DIYs on replacing struts and springs and it was greatly appreciated however, they have all seemingly breezed over how incredibly difficult it is to take off the bolts. Maybe its just my tib but it took my 2 hours to get the rear left bolts off. This is not meant to scare anyone but if you plan to replace your springs and struts plan to have ready an:

Impact wrench over 250 pounds of tourqe
a can of Liquid Wrench
Torch (small $12 torch at home depot)
tons of elbow grease
and so far it has taken me 4 days to do just the rear.

I found that my sway bar link nut was stripped so ordering the part and all added 2 days. All in all I found that it was a good expierience cause now i finally have an impact wrench and a little more knowledge. But its also a good thing that i had 4 days off, a gf that dosnt b**** too much (hard to find), and my moms car to run out and get the parts.

And i honesly think that these shocks have been on the car for the entire lifetime of the car, 92,000 miles because when i took off the shocks i saw that the metal rod decompresses itself with gravity. It was about time for new ones.

Thanks for the DIY thou, without them i would have never attempted it.

 

OMG, yah it is a biotch.. i striped my sway bar link thingy and had to cut it off with bolt cutters. havent had a rear right sway bar end link for 3 yrs.. just got the bolts for it and i need to install it.. will help a bit and i get a really annoying rattle when im driving cuz my rear sway bar is just flopping around lol.

 

Which bolts?

It took me like 4 to 5 hours to do all 4 corners.

 

Yea, i wanted to make sure that i had it in cause i havn't done too much under the car and i wanted to get it so i went to auto zone and it was going to be $21 but, 5 seconds later i find out that they dont carry it anymore. So i had to go to Strauss Auto and they wanted $48, little f***ers ripped me off. But i thought i needed the piece to i got it. Never going there again.

But as it stands iv been driving to work with just the rear replaced and it feels good, Much improved shock absorbsion. God those old ones bit the dust.

Do you think that i should put on the guard thats on the old ones or does it not really matter??



it was the rear left 17mm bolts that wouldn't budge without 2 hours of attention. The 14mm sway bar link bolt gave me a hard time and stripped so i replaced that one, but the brake line pin pulled right out.



Oh and i forgot to ask if you think the rear is harder than the front. or vice versa?

 

I keep hearing people complain that the sway bar links are stripped... I have to wonder if everyone is not realizing you have to put a wrench on the other side under the boot to hold the link in place.

 

i managed to get all struts out when i did my coilovers in about 2 hours or so, torch and impact wrench

but thats to remove them only and had a friend to help, still was a HUUUGE PITA though

 

dweet helped me, we had a wrench on the other side of the endlink, and it got stripped cuz the nut was like rusted on (rust state MI) and then i was fooked, so now i just gots to install the new one, but its annoying as hell not having it hooked up.

 

bah it was CAKE for me no problems at all

maybe cuz i know the endlink trick...

took me about 3.5 hours to do them all

 

Do share you endlink trick,... cool.gif

 

well its not really a trick its just a smart way to get it off lmao.gif a wrench on that bolt behind the boot... on really rusty ones ive used vice grips on the bolt itself while using a ratchet to take off the nut...

probably helps that i keep spares at home just in case