For anyone else who is going to replace their struts themselves I thought I would do a sort of pictorial record of how I am doing mine. I will do it as a running thread, updating it with pictures and comments as I go along, rather than waiting until the end and trying to remember everything.
Hmmmm where to start…at the beginning I suppose, I have been getting the dreaded knocking noises for some time, from the rear of the car mostly but occasionally from the front too. On top of that, just lately whilst driving on motorways and smooth roads the car has been ‘shimmying’ which is the best way I can describe it. It has a sort of cyclic side-to-side motion, snaking I suppose, which is not how it used to be.
To begin with I thought it was my 17” wheels causing it, but I have now changed back to my Rev2 standard 15” wheels for winter and it’s still the same. I’m now convinced it is a combination of tired old shocks & springs along with drop links, ball joints and generally bushes throughout the car. Hence my mission to replace everything with new or improved components, after much searching on this forum and others, the shopping list I came up with (see below) will give me the combination of ride comfort and handling that I am looking for whilst lowering the car enough to improve it’s aesthetics.
Bilstein Yellow B6 Struts
Tein S-Tech Lowering Springs –35mm approx
Front & Rear Ball Joints
Front & Rear Drop Links
Full Set Of High & Tight Polyurethane Bushes Front & Rear
Powerflex Shock Absorber Bumpstops & Gaiters
Goodrich Stainless Steel Braided Brake Hoses.
When I first set out to replace my suspension I had intended to use Koni SSK inserts and springs. I could see that doing the shock and spring replacement utilising my existing re-build able struts was going to take lots of time and would mean my car being off the road for a long time. So I started my search for a set of spare struts that I could strip down at my leisure, clean up and fit the Koni SSK kit, which would then save me time later on. I was lucky enough to be offered a set for the princely sum of £40.
Ultimately I decided not to go the Koni route, but what this did is provide me with a set of front & rear top mounts in very good condition, the front mount bearings were very smooth and had no play in them and the rubbers of both front and rear mounts were not perished and were solid. They basically needed to be de-rusted as well as possible, which I did using a bench grinder with a wire wheel mounted. Then using some machinery enamel I gave them a couple of coats of paint.
I’ve decided to do this in two distinct separate stages, first I’m going to concentrate on the shocks and springs and change them first with the new drop links. Then after a test drive to gauge any improvement I will then do the polyurethane bushes and ball joints and then another test drive to see if there is further improvement. I don’t have the luxury of being able have the car off the road for extended periods of time.
Today I assembled the new struts, I started with a front strut for no particular reason, it’s just the first box I opened. The first job was to fit the Powerflex combined bump stop and gaiter.
At this point it is worth noting that the very top of the piston rod there are two flats which when everything is assembled need to fit in the corresponding location in the top cup. I worked out that these flats needed to be lined up so that they faced the outside/inside of the strut rather than across. Anyway I found it was a good idea to orientate these flats now to prevent twisting the secured gaiter later on.
Fitting the gaiters entailed trimming the bottom to fit the top of the strut leg (there are two stepped collars). Cutting the smaller of the two off made it a perfect fit, and then all that was needed was to slide the gaiter and bump stop over the top of the piston rod and secure the gaiter to the strut and to the bump stop with cable ties. See pic below:
Next step is to fit the front coil spring, this has a flat wound coil at one end which needs to be facing up, the end of the coil at the bottom needs to fit in the location on the strut cup. See pic:
Next piece to fit on the front strut is the top cup; this has a rubber insulator or cushion if you like fitted to the underside. See pic:
This cup is then inverted and fitted cushion down on top of the spring. If you look at the top surface of the cup you will see the word OUT and an arrow, this needs to face outwards, you can just make this out in the picture below. The way to judge this is to line the word OUT & arrow up with the hub mounting lug at the bottom of the strut since this faces the outside of the car when installed. Having done this the pink coloured dust seal then needs to be fitted, see pic below.
Next step is to place the top mount itself in place see pic below.
I then enlisted the help of my trusty assistant Maggie….while I pressed down on the cup with two hands, she span the top nut on as far as possible. This was surprisingly easy to do since there only needed to be about 30mm compression to get the nut on. If you are doing this on your own then it would be relatively easy to compress the spring using proprietary spring compressors which I had to hand just in case. A word of caution here though, I would
not recommend trying to
remove any car coil spring without the aid of compressors since it is impossible to know the level of compression an existing spring is under. Once the nut was in place I then used a ratchet & 19mm socket to wind the nut on as far as possible…making sure that the flats on the piston rod were located properly in the top cup. I will torque them up finally when installed in the car. Below is a picture of the front strut fully assembled.
Cheers....Bob