My front passenger side strut mount is shot. I dont know whether to buy a new one or a used one from the junk yard. Its gotten to the point to where everytime I turn or hit a bump( big or small) it makes this annoying clunking sound. Ive got to replace the rear struts also, someone menchened that besides taking the brake calipers off, that there are only three screws or bolts that have to come off. Is it really that easy?? I mean the top wont be difficult for me to do, its just the bottom.

 

to replace the strut mount, you need to compress the spring. three bolts hold it up top to the car, but one holds the strut in place. if you still have the strut mount cover thingy, if you pop it off, you will see the nut. DO NOT TAKE IT OFF unless you have the strut out of the car, and the spring properly compressed. you could easily kill yourself , or rip off a limb.

replacing the rear struts isn't that easy. removing the assembly is almost that easy, but not quite.
again, three nuts up top, a long bolt through the parallel links, one for the trailing arm, one for the sway bar.

spray liberally with PB Blaster, get a good compressor, and impact wrench, it'll all come off.
I recommend a helper if you can get one.
and start with the bottom, work your way to the top.

 

Personally, when this happened to me on my newest black VE, I just went to the junkyard and bought a complete strut/spring combo at the junkyard, and switched those ****'s out in about 15 minutes. When I bought the car (black one in sig), BOTH front struts were clunking due to bad strut mounts. I lucked out and found an SE that had had newish looking KYB struts up front, so I grabbed both of them and replaced both my front struts.

I really didn't feel like screwing around with compressing the spring and dismounting it, etc. because, while it's not "hard", it is a pain. Plus, I have Eibach's to go on it, so I didn't want to do all that crap until I was ready to install the Eibach's.

 

new strut and spring bro

 

Well the passenger side strut is fairly new, its just the mount thats old and bad. I would grab one from the JY but it wouldn't make sense to just throw away a good strut and have to probaly replace the used one soon. I may just take it off and go to a shop and see how much they will charge me to install the mount. As far as the rear shocks go, I dont have access to an inpact wrench or air tools, so I would have to do it manually. I believe the hardest part on the rear, would be to remove that large bolt that goes through the whole assembly. But I will spray with some PB blaster and most likely tackle the job on monday.

 

I would borrow a compresser and an impact, cuts the job time in half.. But if you can take the strut out your self then your can easily do the rest of the job your self too, id go to autozone or sears and get a set of spring compressors for $50, hook them to your strut compress it undo the top center nut and take the whole spring and cap off of the mount, swap mount then put it all back together, ez as pie... i put all 4 of my intrax (spring off mounts) on in 1 hour so i believe you can do it too but but you def need air tools or lots of elbow grease....

 

Thanks for the advice man. An air tool set and a compressor are going to be my next investment. I think Autozone carries their spring compressors for like $35 now. I will Go grab a set and start on replacing the strut mount.