You will need to compress the springs on the front. They are coil-over shocks.

 

Hey modell.............great choice with the EBC parts. Red stuff pads will stop you on a dime / sixpence / whatever.......lol
Did you get the slotted / grooved / dimpled galvanised rotors too?

JC

 

The only special tool would be the spring compressor.

If you've done shocks in the past, this is pretty straight forward repair.

 

its not hard, just be patient,top boltsfor the rear shocks are a PAIN! I have an 03, and there was already a good amount of rust on them.

 

Easy stuff, one weekend worth of work...should have a sweet set-up afterwards....good luck

 

[>:]

 

Hose the bolts down with Twister or PB'laster a couple of days before going at it. It makes things a little easier. These cars tend to get rusty around the suspension bolts.

The front is a Machphearson design. Remove the whole strut and spring assembly from the upper mount and the lower balljoint. Once out of the car, use the spring compressor tool. Doing this when it's out of the vehicle and not in the fender well prevents damage in many many ways! You may need to actually remove the LCA or partially lower the front subframe to gain clearance for the front strut assemblies. I know it's kinda tight.

The rears are a multilink setup, so the springs should not need to be removed or compressed; the shocks simply unbolt.

Out of curiosity, why would you do struts at your mileage? Are you doing lowering springs or sport suspension? There is a substantial difference between removing the calipers to replace the brakes and removing the strut assemblies to do struts. It's a lot more work to do the latter. You are talking a couple of hours versus up to a full day if you run into rusty bolts.

 

Yeah I was curious as to why you wanted to do this as well? Brake rotors and pads and painting them are one story but to take the entire suspension apart is a whole other can of worms...If you have some bad suspension it'd be worth it but if theres no problem I wouldn't change all of that up...its not that hard to jack the car up and take 5 lug nuts and the wheel off when you do have to change the suspension...

 

thats because you have the sport, if you had that mooshy suspension that i had you would know why its necessary! its totally worth upgrading the shocks if you have a non sport x, trust me as someone who's done it. the shocks are damn well worth the effort and money.

 

epecially if ure thinking bout getting rims, u shud stiffen up the suspension

 

Lol............thank god I got the Sport!

Jim

 

yea i hated it, it handled well, but bobbed back and forth like my cousins old Cadillac brougham on crappy local roads

 

Cadillac Brougham gives you a floating ride lol .Sport suspension can be a good choice unless you like high comfort level

 

Cool......good luck Modell and make sure you keep us posted

Jim

 

Lol.....Hey Modell
Post your pics somewhere first ........I use photobucket
Add all the pics you would like to use there
Then simply click on the add image icon ( top right yellow button)
go to photobucket and click on the url of the pic you want to show then paste into the add image section
Job done

JC