I am going to be replacing my front strust over the weekend, and when my replacement strut assemblies arrived, I checked them, and I was able to easiy compress them with my hands. This, ummm, doesn't seem right. Should I be able to compress these with my hands, or does the spring do all of the work? To give a little synopsis of the problem, when I go over a bump, the car will bounce a little bit after the bump, and will sometimes bottom out over larger bumps. Do I need to replace the springs as well? Can I get stock size springs anywhere? ( I don't want to lower it at all) Oh, and if it's needed, the replacement strust are Gabriels.

 

The Gabriels are POS. I went cheap and bought them 4 years ago and they were shot in about 15K.
As for the strut, you should be able to compress them using your hands.
However, they are designed to damp the shocks. Try this: pull or push quickly on the rod, you should NOT be able to, just by your hands.

 

Yeah I know they are POS, but the car is a winter beater, and I don't plan on keeping it much longer. I'll try to quickly press on it when I get back home and see what that does, thanks for that tip

 

Struts control rebound....I remember being able to compress my Tokicos by hand....not their full travel length, but yeah I could compress them somewhat by hand.

 

but can you push them in quickly... ah ha... ah ha

 

if it bounces a lot a bit after you went through a slight bump, then that usually means the shocks or struts need changing.

 

Yea my rear ones bouce for like 100+ feet after a bump...it can get scary if you do just the right speed on a curve

Thank God we're changing all struts and rear assembly for drum to disc

 

If you could compress the springs by hand, you should be worried.......

 

what so should i take my slinkys back to the store?

 

lol @ slinkys

 

I replaced the front and rear struts on my GXE and I had use a spring compressor for all of them. You can usually rent a spring compressor for very little money. Some places charge $40 and when you return it they refund the entire amount.