Dealer says my front shocks are leaking. When I did the front brakes recently sure enough the shock towers were slightly wet. Is this a DIY repair?

Thanks in advance

 

NOrcal, I guess the first thing that you have to ask is whether you have access to a spring compressor or not. That will be needed for this job. Reading the service manual, it seems pretty straight forward like a lot of other vehicles I have worked on. The big thing is making sure you support the lower A-arm then you unbolt the shock.

Also, the manual states that on the driver's side (for you), you will need to move the coolant expansion tank out of the way to gain access to a bolt. On the passenger side, you will need to move the fuse box out of the way. A few bolts for each, but not something that may be completely obvious. It also states that you will need an allen key (aka, small socket) to hold the ball joint in place when removing the upper joint to the spindle as it is attached to the ball joint.

When reassembling things, the shaft nut at the top of the strut is torqued to 20 ft-lbs. The nuts that hold the top of the strut assembly to the body of the car are also torqued to 20 ft-lbs. Fuse box nuts are torqued to 6 ft-lbs (72 in-lbs). The upper ball joint is torqued to 66 ft-lbs. The lower portion of the strut is torqued to 129 ft-lbs.

Short of the removal process:

-Support car and remove wheel
-loosen joint at bottom of strut
-Loosen upper spindle/ball joint and separate (ensure lower a-arm is supported)
-unplug electrical connection to strut
-move out of the way the tank/fuse box
-Remove the 4 nuts holding the strut to the body of the car
-place strut in spring compressor to take up the load and then remove the nut holding the strut to the upper assembly
-slowly release spring pressure to allow strut to be removed.

Installation is the reverse process.

 

Wow...thanks thermo..The dealer didn't even give me a quote to do it. Sure it was not cheap. There are some cool *** people on this site..

Thanks again