Removing Strut/Spring/Front Shock/Ease Of Drive Shaft Removal Guide

[Steve]

Changing Front Springs / Shocks

IF I FIND ANY OF MY IMAGES OR TEXT USED ON EBAY AS A GUIDE I WILL BE PROSECUTING YOU.

This will also help you in removing the driveshafts also. Thats if you want to do it the proper way.
If your like me and quickly want to swap them look at the following steps.

12 and 13. The passenger one pulls straight out, once the wishbone is split from the hub get someone to pull the hub outwards from teh car and the drive shaft comes straight out, for the drivers side though there is 3 bolts above the centre bearing which you need to take out.

You may notice some pictures are in the dark, thats because i started doing this at 2 in the morning when i was bored.

Few people have asked for it, so here we go.
Where possible al try put socket sizes etc up, will take some editing as it was months ago when i last did it.

This is purely how i found it easiest, others may disagree but still, my method works.

Tools Needed

Ball Joint Separator - Fork Type And The Windy Type Maybe needed
Full Set Of Sockets
Hammer
Mallet
Mole Grips - A MUST
Chisel
Ratchet Spanners - if you have them
WD40
Blow Torch
Spring Clamps
Torx Bits
Something to rest Drive shafts on - unless you drain the gearbox oil and take the shafts out, but tahts pointless imo.

TIPS SECTION

1. WD40 All nuts well in advance

2. Loosen the Strut Retaining Nut On The Top Don't Take It Off Simply Loosen it.

^ The nut in the middle, requires a 19mm swan neck spanner and a Torx bit, cant remember what size.

REMOVING THE STRUT

1. First off you need to get the car jacked up and on stands (depends if you care about health and safety).

2. Loosen the front wheel bolts but don't take them off, do this now as if they are on tight, you will probably have to lower the car back to the ground.



3. Once the car is jacked up continue to take both front wheels off.

4. So now we have the strut looking like this.


5. Best bet is to WD40 all the nuts, like drop link and track rod end nut.

6. First i took off the drop link bolt. iirc 16mm socket needed if they are OEM ones. May need your big mole grips at this point as you may find they thread turns as wel. Simply clamp the top of the drop link to the strut, then this will stop the thread turning as well as the nut. (see my changing drop links guide for pictures of this if you need them).



NOTE: if you didn't need mole grips to stop the thread turning the track rod end maybe seized to the strut, if so, wind the nut back on, get some wood and hit it with a hammer up wards to try and release it from the strut.
This didn't work for me, in the end i nackered the thread and decided i cba and would buy new track rods for the sake of £17 or whatever.
So i blow torched mine tap of a hammer and they were out.

7. Next up get a friend/random stranger from the street, to come and put their foot firmly on the brake pedal. Get a long bar which can take a 3/4 socket and take the drive shaft nut off, iirc 22mm socked needed.
Make sure they dont take their foot off the pedal when you go round the other side, as the brakes are not as firm
If you find the brakes slipping, i started the car, left it running bumped the brakes and did it, it made them solid again .

Now you will have something like this, i left the driveshaft nut on pureply for the photo.


8. The drop link nut needs to come off. I used a torx bit as mine were fairly new drop links so were not corroded. Put the spanner on 19mm iirc then put the torx bit in the middle and loosten it.

NOTE if yours rounds off in the middle of the thread, dont worry about it, try loostening the nut then if the thread starts to spin, just mole grip it like the track rod ends i talked about previously.







9. SKIP THIS IF YOU DONT HAVE ABS
You need to take the sensor off, basically there is a black plasic cover, undo the first nut, slide the cover off.
Then there is another couple of nuts, take them off and just let the sensor hang, i cant remember how many nuts there is.



Will end up looking like this.



10. Time to take the calipers off, round the back tehre is 2 bolts which need a 19mm socket.
Simply take them off and have some thing ready to rest the calipers on.









11. Take the pinch bolt off the bottom of the strut.
This is it here as shown in an earlier picture.


12. Take your ball joint tool the fork type, and hammer it between the bottome of the strut and the rubber seal on the wish bone, i always put the flat side of the fork upwards against the side of the strut to stop the rubber on the ball joint splitting.

(i dont have any pictures of this sorry.)

Once split just simply pull the hub so the wishbone sits to the side of the strut.

We are almost ready for removal.

13. Get a 13mm socket and get someone to loosten the nuts on the strut top.


tahts the 3 nuts in that photo.

While they do that, keep tight a hold of the strut as it will drop, get something to rest the drive shaft on also, (tahts if your doing it my way and have not removed gearbox oil) rest the shaft on it.

Once the botls are out the top push the shaft from the centre of the hole so you dont leak any gearbox oil, get your mate to do this and keep a hold of the shaft while you take the strut from the car.

Thats it struts off.

IF YOU WANT TO REMOVE THE DRIVE SHAFT AT THIS POINT YOU CAN, THE PASSENGER SIDE PULLS STRAIGHT OUT, THE DRIVERS SIDE HAS 3 BOLTS IN IT CONNECTING TO THE BACK OF THE ENGINE WHICH YOU NEED TO TAKE OUT

14. Have a quick break and some baileys.




15. The car will look something like this.



^ bar the puddle of oil as i knocked the little table i had supporting the shaft.

[Steve]

REMOVING THE SPRING

1. Get the clamps on the spring, and start winding to compress them.


2. Once its compressed, you will know its enough as you can move the spring about, take the retaining nut off the top of the strut, you need a torx bit and a swan neck spanner to do this. Once the nuts off, remember the sequence you take the top mount etc off.

Remove the spring from teh strut and carefully de compress it.


^ Will look like that.

Ebaich 35mm springs compared to 30mm Koni Springs



3. Now remove the black plastic shock cover from teh strut, it will slide off.

4. Under neath taht you have a bump stop, check to see which way it came off, not sure if it matters.

Will now have bits like this all over the place


Me decompressing springs

[Steve]

REMOVING THE SHOCK

Now you can get a proper fork tool to remove the nut, but i dont have one, mole grips for teh win.

1. Get your mole grips/fork tool. And start loostening the nut, mine was on really tight, so some stamping on the mole grips was in order.



2. Once that is loose the shock will literally fall out if you hang the strut upside down



^new koni against old.

3. Put your new shock in and put the nut back on, i just gussed tightness if i am honest.

NOTE WITH THE KONIS MINE WERE ADJUSTABLE, TO ADJUST THEM COMPRESS THE SHOCK, TURN CLOCKWISE TO STIFFEN THEM, ANTI CLOCKWISE TO SOFTEN THEM, THEY NEED TO BE COMPRESS WHILST TURNING.

4. Slide the bump stop on (once again with the konis there was some spacers to put on, you get a diagram when you buy the kit)

You should now have something similar to this.


5. Compress the new spring.

6. Put the spring back on the strut, make sure you put it on the right way, normally an arrow on them.

7. Put the top plate and top mount on, and put the securing nut back on, doesnt have to be stupid tight just nip it.

8. De compress the spring.



9. Re fitting back to the car is the reverse of removal.



I have probably missed something, feel free to comment, or assist on where i can add something in
i rushed this to help someone out on here, so bare with me while i go through and edit.

[Mr_suv]

great guide should be stickied!!

[Steve]

Originally Posted by suvvysaxo

great guide should be stickied!!

easy enough to follow?

[megabob]

great guide do want as sticky

oh and "+" to rep

[Richie2104VTR]

Lmao at the baileys!

Busy day off was it steve?!

[Predator_R32p]

great guide steve, ill sticky it now

[Steve]

Originally Posted by Richie2104VTR

Lmao at the baileys!

Busy day off was it steve?!

took the day off just to do the guide.

Originally Posted by Predator_VTR

great guide steve, ill sticky it now

wahoooo vbpoints for me

[Paulp]

Good guide mate. I'll Rep you when i next can.

[ryhornvtr]

As ive just done this too, the driveshaft nut on mine was 20mm. As for taking the droplinks off, steve you noob, theres a hole for an allen key on the end of the thread, so you can hold it still while undo'ing the nut.

Good guide though.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by ryhornvtr

As ive just done this too, the driveshaft nut on mine was 20mm. As for taking the droplinks off, steve you noob, theres a hole for an allen key on the end of the thread, so you can hold it still while undo'ing the nut.

Good guide though.

see thats where you FAIL. Because over time they rust and if the nuts seized, it rounds off

i mentioned it in the guide
also i did use the torx tool on mine, but the first time i did the springs the other ones were fucked.

Mine were not allen keys though.

[shooorn94]

Awesome guide Steve, can see this coming in very handy cheers for all your advice.

[Mark51p]

nice one,

p.s. - guide for sale on egay now

[Steve]

Originally Posted by Mark51

nice one,

p.s. - guide for sale on egay now

my solicitors will be in touch

[Richy25988]

Get a long bar which can take a 3/4 socket and take the drive shaft nut off, iirc 22mm socked needed.

30mm Actually

[Martin-106gti]

Great guide mate just looked at it as i have gaz coilies on the way next week so will use this to an extent i think.
rep

[leightonjay]

no wonder you broke the threads on the track rod end.!!!!

Hitting them on the threads is wrong, if you hit the strut on the side where they go into with a decent hammer they should fall out easily, all they need is a little shock its only 9 times out of ten they will come out with one whack.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by leightonjay

no wonder you broke the threads on the track rod end.!!!!

Hitting them on the threads is wrong, if you hit the strut on the side where they go into with a decent hammer they should fall out easily, all they need is a little shock its only 9 times out of ten they will come out with one whack.

You not think i tried that?
you think i litterally just attacked it???

And i didnt hit the threads, i left a nut on the bottom threads, used the proper tool.

They were seized solid, used fuck off hammers and the proper ball joint tools.
Heat brought them out straight away but fucked the seals.

Everyone who works on cars, should know that no two cars are the same.
Just because you hit yours 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 times worked doesnt mean it would work on my car.

I have done a fair few now. Some are a pain, some come out straight away and need to be mole gripped to get the nut off, some dont.
Its the way it is.

for the sake of £8 i dont care if it needs new track rod ends.

[Sparco_Tom]

nice guide mate