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.