AAAAARRGG!!!

Is it just my car, or does Nissan REEEALY tighten down the bolts connecting the struts to the hub?

Ive been spending the last HOUR trying to remove these bolts (front, havent even tried the rear yet). In the process I have broken TWO wrenches including a close to 2ft torque wrench! I have bathed them in WD-40 and banged on them with a hammer.

I am just about out of ideas. I was thinking of getting some pipe and making a breaker bar, but I dont want to bust another wrench. I dont have a torch. Im desperate, maybe Ill use a lighter

 

i did my own, although i installed the rears first, then the fronts. i hear your case, it's nothing an impact wrench can't solve. i hope your hardware has a lifetime guarantee, get that sheeit replaced. good luck, bro.

 

i just hope you dont bald your bolts.. if that happens its over...

just get it done at a shop 80 bucks most

 

Eighty bucks at the most for the install of the suspension?

Andrei

 

$80? I don't think so.

 

yep.. if you guys are paying more for install then you guys are getting ripped..
i got it dont at RPM motorworks and they did a damn good job

 

Mine were on there pretty good the 1st time too. Make sure you're turning in the right direction

 

I did it and it sucked! It was very hard. Not worth it to do it your self. Pay the cash.

 

i used craftsman ratchet and a very long metal tub and it did take a long time about 4 to 5 hrs.

 

I used a big 1/2" breaker bar with another pipe that is about 18" long on the end for mine, and still took a good effort to break them loose. Leverage is your friend.

 

Do yourself a favor.....run out and get an impact gun. An electric one will do. I did all four sides in under 3 hours. The right tool is everything.

 

Thanks for the replys guys.

Okay. So I went out and bought a breaker bar and a 1/2"-3/8" addaptor... Got home, gave it some muscle and... TWISTED AND BROKE OFF THE F*UCKING ADDAPTOR!!!

After this I decided to call in a favor at my Infiniti dealer. They were cool about it and told me that they would take care of it. Maybe 10 min. later they say that their tech. wont touch it. WTF. They said that maybe an independant shop would do it.

Took the car to TWO shops and neither of them would do it either!

Finally I used my brain and bought an impact socket for my 1/2" breaker. It worked like a charm and solved my problem Well sort of... Turns out that the rear struts are on there pretty good too, and of course require a different size socket. So rather than try to break another of my 3/8" sockets, I will just go out tomorrow and buy the correct size impact socket.

So for now i have the front done and am pretty happy about that. I have been waiting soo long to install these. Wish me luck with the rears tomorrow. It looks like I have to remove a cross-member in the trunk to get to the rear strut towers.

And for all that suggested that I just pay to have them installed for me. I will go a LONG way to keep other people from touching my car! Plus I think its fun to be able to do it yourself.

 

Yeah. Not only would it be helpfull in breaking bolts loose, but I bet it would make compressing the springs a LOT faster. That is the only part I dont like about doing this job.

 

what sizes are the bolts? I am going to be doing my suspension pretty soon, and I dont have tools at home. everything is at work.

what tools are needed to do this?

 

Bijan and myself put on my jics by using air tools. It was a breeze. I paid like 150 the first 2 times around for my other suspensions...now i can do it on my own with air tools

 

With all the tools mentioned, the single most helpful tool used when my buddy and I did my install was penetrating spray. You can pick it up at Lowes, HD or any parts store. Let the penetrating spray sit for 5 minutes or so and then use a 1/2" breaker bar. We didn't even need the impact wrench on the fronts, but the rears are what gave us some issues. Stood on the breaker bar to work the back set loose. Other than that it was a breeze.

 

the bolts are 17mm and 19mm if i remember correctly.. anyway I had a b!tch of a time with it too, but only with one bolt.. no matter what i tried it would not come off, it got stripped to hell.. Finally i got fed up and went out and bought air tools. STILL wouldn't come off.. i just drove over to just tires and paid one of the workers 10 bucks to put it on a lift and impact it loose. Then I drove home with it slightly loosened, my own impact wrench got it out the rest of the way.

 

Why the **** would you use a torque wrench to remove bolts........?

But yeah I feel your pain on the rear struts. Took me about two hours and finally had a friend come over that had this badass like $150 ratchet with a breaker bar and stomped on the thing. It made some horrible racket and I thought he broke his wrench, but it came off. Definitly the hardest part charging the suspension.

 

just go out and buy an electrical impact wrench, it is not as powerful as and air impact gun but it will take the bolts right off

 

i did my own with assisstance of an impact wrench. that does most of the job. yeah, i'd have to say though, jus hope you didn't strip the nuts. good luck on the suspension.

 

buy air tools... they solve everything!

 

i had the same problem. me & some buddys of mine broke a craftsman ratchet & one durabuilt ratchet. the gear in the craftsman was stripped & the lil square head on the durabuilt snapped right off! after a few hours of playin with my nuts (no pun intended), i used a wrench (on the side with the nut) & banged the **** out of the wrench with a 15lbs dumbell. 10 sec later... poof my nuts were free!!! who says you need air tools?? my "planet of the apes" method works just as well!!!!

 

It took me under 20 minutes to replace the front left shock on my moms 99SE...

Those bolts tend to stick and require 1000LBS of torque to get them off lol..

Actually , my electric impact gun is a MIRACLE worker!! I picked mine up for $80CDN... its better than driving out and getting a mechanic to remove the damn bolts!

 

Yeah... Its not such a bright idea. I used it because it is about 2ft. long and USUALLY works pretty good to remove tough nutz. I took the thing apart, and the insides were completely shattered

 

For those of you still reading this thread:

I finished everything up today and all I can say is... WOW! I have the Illuminas set to "5" (the stiffest setting), and my car handles like its on rails. The ride is a little harsh, but i dont think it is anywhere near uncomfortable.

I do have a couple concerns though:

When I was doing the rears (yeah yeah, laugh it up), I didnt even have to compress the coils to put them on the struts.??? i was not comfortable with this so I chopped down a little rubber bumper about 1/2" to make a tighter fit. This made it a little tighter, but I am still a little worried. Did anyone else run into this, or am I doing something wrong? I would think that anyone running the Teins would know for sure.

Also, the rear struts (right around the top strut mounts) are making a slight creaking noise when compressed/decompressed. hey, maybe it has something to do with the aforementioned problem. Do you think the springs just need some time to settle?

Any help on these questions would be much appreciated.

 

you dont need air tools, it just makes it easier/faster, but they are by no means necessary.

 

C'mon, I know you guys have ideas about whats going on.

I especially want to hear back from the guys with Teins. Since the springs are so short, I would like to know what you ran into with the rear struts.

My questions are above.^^

TIA

 

I wouldn't worry about it NewLoveI30. Your description is the same as when I was installing my S-Tech

 

Im not too worried about that, I was just wondering if anyone else ran into that. I dont think there are many times when the rear suspension is completely unloaded.

Do you get any noise from the rear? If I get into the trunk and bounce up and down I can hear a creaking noise comming from the rear strut towers. Everything is tight so I dont think its that.

The reat strut mounts are not directional like the fronts are they? If nobode knows I may just wait a few weeks and see if it was just the springs setteling. Although I have never heard this before (with lowering springs).

 

Didn't know fronts were directional. I just made sure the word "out" on top hat was pointing towards me.

 

Yeah, would that not be directional? I have heard that you can get some pretty wierd noises if you install them with "OUT" not facing...well out.

 

mine were on pretty tight, but it was nothing the old pythons couldnt handle...lol..just soak them in a penetrating lubricant i.e something like pb's grab a craftsman, and push or pull.

 

That was the offending bolt. it took 750 lb-ft of torque from a pro snap-on impact wrench to get it off.

 

i did mine,,alone...the front ones took 2.5 hours the rears almost 4. back hurt for 3 days.. i love the drop and riding on new shocks/stuts feels nice..

 

the end of the spring is supposed to sit in a little notch on the top hat and on the strut. at least that's how it was when i did my old car, 1st gen altima.