The attached diagram shows there are 2 bolts. One above #10 and one below #4 the upper mounting plate? I only have one bolt on the Bilstein strut absorber. So are there 2 needed with the plate in between? What part numbers are the bolts? I only have the diagram.

Update on this 04/29
I found out that depending on the catalog shop, the same diagram doesn't have the double bolts. Only one. Now my car is a 2004 and the attached picture seems to be for 2002. But looking at different vendors catalogs, the same schematic goes for 2004 , ie with 2 bolts at times, 1 bolt other times. So the question stands, does the upper mount take a bolt above and right under or just one above?
Thank you all

What number for the parts 4 and 10 (in red)? My strut came with one bolt and the upper plate with none.

It has been a while since i changed top mounts but as i remember (adaptive shocks) I only have a single tall nut securing the top of the damper. Upper plate from welsh came with nuts due to the non OEM thread. I would imagine an OEM mount may come without nuts since reuse of originals is possible.

Wonderful! I guess that must be depending on the year then. Although it could be that it's widely forgotten and not installed by shops. I'm talking about the 2nd bolt.
It would make sense though to have 2. One bolt under the plate would provide support and inflict less stress on the strut. Question is does it hurt to have 2...
question for you:
Talking about the upper mounts, does the spring just sit against it, direct contact ? No levelers? It seems to be a harsh contact to have spring against the plate directly. I've heard people advising to have the upper plates in a vise while assembling plate and spring on the strut. Any reason why?

The nut on the strut absorber that holds upper plate and spring, does it have to go all the way? I've read that it is wise to have the top part of that strut where the nut screws on, to be lightly sanded and washed.

Thanks. I think I have most of it to get started...thanks to people like you and others. So thanks. Let me know what you think though about the thoughts above if you don't mind.

Thanks

Yes upper shock mount fits into and sits directly on top of spring. I used pipe clamp to seat mount. Into spring.

tighten bolt to torque spec . A bit loose = clunk noise.
John

Hello,
What would you do to lift your ride besides brand new shocks and mounts etc? For eg if you wanted the ride a bit higher of an inch or maybe half doesn't matter, where would you put the spacer? The spacers they sell go between the mounts upper and lower on the spring right? So all it would do is change how much the spring is compressed but the height would be the same. How would you go about doing that with b4 bilstein (non adjustable) struts?
Thanks.

Clamps for the lower mounting gear right?
Other then for that, I don't understand why the need for clamps. The upper mounts are just plates seating on top of the springs so no need of clamps there am I wrong?
Thanks

Hi,
The plastic leveler at the bottom of the spring arrived broken. They sent me a replacement made of rubber way more solid but thicker. The white plastic leveler plus the o ring spacer together are about 1/2 inch thickness whether the rubber replacement is double that. It will seat on the lower pane and the spring will seat on this. Because of the difference in thickness that means the spring will be compressed 1/2 inch more than with the white plastic leveler. Is that going to be a problem and does it still respect specs on my xkr? (Front coil springs base)

Thanks a lot.

spacers placed between spring and top or bottom spring pan will raise the ride height. The amount of spring compression once fitted to the car is dependent on the weight of the car not spacer thickness (within reason)
The extended length of the damper has a bearing on spring compression but only until the car is back on the ground.

That's interesting. So adding spacers between upper and lower mounts charge the height? I'm still wondering though is that safe that my spacer is twice the thickness of the height of what would be using the white plastic leveler+ 5mm o ring?

I am not sure l fully understand the question but the answer to what l think you are asking is this.
The whole front spring/damper assembly is just that, an assembly. The spring needs to be compressed and then placed between the top and bottom spring pans on the damper and the top pan/mount retained by the top central damper nut. The spring clamps are then removed leaving the spring captive and ready for fitting to car as an assembly.

Can you post a pic of spacer mentioned?
Seems a bit thick.

Ok. Let me explain better.
The spring is compressed between a white leveler that comes with the spring and a 5mm o ring spacer as well then a pane at the lower end. The upper end of the spring only has the upper mounting plates. Now instead of the plastic leveler and the ring at the lower end, I have a rubber ring of twice the thickness than the leveler+ o ring that will go on the lower pan. My question was it that safe that it's twice the thickness? It's kinda equivalent to using 4 o ring spacer in thickness basically.

Sure.
At the thickest side. 10mm thicker. The thinner side below is about the same as the white leveler with o ring. The thicker side looks like 4~5 o rings stacked together thick. Not sure if it's a big deal or what's the tolerance specs...



The white leveler will be replaced by the rubber one.

How are the spring coils terminated?. That thicker spacer seems designed to support the end of a non flattened coil rather than a level ground end.

Correct. The lower end of the spring isn't flat so it works ..

As you can see the lower end of the spring needs to be levelled. Thus the difference in height on the rubber depending on which side. Same goes for the white leveler. It's thicker around then thinner.

Hello,
So we tried with my friend to compress the coil spring with the MacPherson spring compressors from AutoZone, couldn't get past 30% of compression. We had 4 of the spring loops inside the jaws. The nut on the compressor tool started to actually dig itself in its own hook that was holding one of the spring loops.
Tried with a air compressor impact that didn't do it.
Tomorrow is up to the shop, I will have them do the assembling spring to strut. I wanted to avoid it since they probably gonna assemble the set the bully way, ie with an impact gun for the top nut instead of torquing with piston in place using a special tool. Oh well...no choice there I guess. Couldn't compress that spring anyways on our own so...
To be continued...

Alex, I had similar issues, you probably forgot but that's why I suggested borrowing 2 sets of autozone compressors.

once you get nearly to the point you describe, hook up set #2 way up top and way down below in the space your previous compressing now provided. Tap them into the spring with hammer to get each pair at 90 degree angle to 1st clamps. Once secure back out the old compresors clamps are jammed, help move then with your hammer.

Compressor #2 will hold your previous efforts in place. And allow you to finish smoothly.

It's not too late, especially if you have a compressor & impact wrench.

John

BTW, I bet I spent at least 2 hrs more than you trying to figure this out the 1st time :-). IOW, don't feel bad, it takes any of us on a headache journey the 1st time mate.
John

Thanks for the words of encouragement! Really appreciate it!! I feel better now.

Hello,
Great finally replaced my front shocks, new springs, active dampening strut Bilstein, new mounts upper and lower. The cool thing is we could switch the shocks (old to new) without having to remove the wishbone. Huge relief here. Removed the wheel liner, the sway bar links, and moved the bar out of the way. It's extremely tight but with the help of a pry bar, we could remove the old shock assembly and install the new strut this way without unmounting the wishbone arms or even the wires!

Now the less good news...I took the car for a spin right after to check things out, what a difference, although I didn't pushed to drive on the freeway yet...Tried again today, started the car and got an amber light "suspension fault" immediately before even moving. 5 minutes later got the "DSC system fault" too. Stopped the car, restarted, same thing. So I'm thinking 2 things, either I fxxxed up somewhere, either the cycle isn't complete and needs more time to reset, basically something to do with the computer recycling maybe?
Back home, I ran "torque" a general diagnostic scanner, got a " "P1000 powertrain", absolutely nothing else, no detail, just that message. - odd - I seem to remember that a P1000 means the computer needs more time to cycle but this time with the word powertrain next to it.
Something odd, after turning the key on ignition (no start) to run Torque, and plug the scanner, the car console didn't show me the amber "suspension fault" this time while it had come up the first 2 times the key turned on today. So there's hope on that one that it could be the computer finishing the cycle or something. Maybe I should try a hard reset, but would like to avoid (don't have the radio code)

Another thing, although I've read it was common on new installed springs until it settles down, my ride height is now 16.5" for the front. To tell you how bad it was, ride was at 13.5" before!!!
Although I had the amber light, the comfort and handling was pretty amazing compared to before. But I'd like to test the car on the freeway soon and see if the front of the car belly still rubs on the road over dips.

I have the 2 older shocks and they don't look as bad as I though they would. The upper mounts are pulverized but the lower pan, lower seat, springs, even the lower strut bushing aren't too bad. I suspect the strut rods being lose but won't know until I remove the springs on these older shocks.
Can the struts be reconditioned btw? Maybe I could sell them after repair with the springs too..

In any case, that's about it. To be continued...

I want TO THANK A MILLION TIMES all of you who helped with our advices. Without your help/advices none of this job would have been possible. It's the advices, the tips that make a difference. The shop asked so much money that it wasn't an option. So big thank you all!


Old mounts...


Right in the center, should have taken the pix more vertically from above...